MICHIGAN: The F-150 is the largest production ever of an aluminum- bodied vehicle, with the metal previously found mostly on luxury cars such as Jaguars. Replacing steel with aluminum means the pickup achieves as much as 26 miles (42 kilometres) per gallon on the highway, a 29 percent improvement from the older model. The F-series line is the the nation’s top-selling vehicle and accounts for about 90 percent of Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford’s global automotive profits.
Ford Motor Co. is helping to pull aluminum from the bear markets afflicting most commodities by adding to an increase in industrial use.
The company is hiring workers to expand production of its F-150 pickup after a switch to an aluminum body helped spur demand that has exceeded the company’s plans. As auto use increases, U.S. consumption of the metal will rise about 7 percent in 2015 from 2014 to 5.38 million tons, the highest since 2006, according to Morgan Stanley.
Even as the Bloomberg Commodity Index trades near a 12-year low, aluminum prices are up about 2.4 percent in the past 12 months, the biggest gain behind cattle. Ford’s move to go with the lightweight metal that helps to improve fuel mileage is a “line in the sand” for carmakers, Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at AutoTrader.com., said last month after the F-150 took the North American Truck of the Year award.
“The demand profile for aluminum is positive, for sure, and that’s from the light-weighting trends in the auto sector,” David Wilson, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in London, said in a telephone interview. “There’s longer-term pressure on auto companies to reduce car fuel consumption, and I suspect we’ll continue to see those trends in light-weighting.”
Aluminum for delivery in three months slid 2.3 percent in 2015 to $1,810 a metric ton as of 2:16 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange. Cash prices, which settled Thursday at $1,791.25, will climb 16 percent this year to an average $2,072, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a Feb. 23 report. The bank in January correctly forecast a rebound for copper, which is heading for the biggest monthly gain since September 2012.
