Steel is ready to challenge aluminum’s popularity

Not wanting to fall behind the rise of aluminum in the automotive scene, there’s an advanced high-strength steel coming our way.

Based on a report from Automotive News, the new steel would be sturdier, less expensive, most likely to be as lightweight as aluminum products, and would possibly be distributed to automakers around 2021.

As a matter of fact, AK Steel Holding Corp., a research and innovation center that focuses on bringing steel products in the market, presented different types of steel that can be used in building automobiles. There’s one in traditional form, a high-strength type, and the advanced high-strength version, which the company has continuously been working on to make each piece stronger, thinner, and even lighter.

Essentially, steel has already proven to be the main player for car parts and remains to be the top choice today with about 55 percent of vehicle on average. However, in the past three to five years, the use of aluminum has also been increasing its exposure in the market. One example of this was when Ford launched the restyled version of the top-selling F-150 pickup truck in 2014, which stands proudly on its aluminum body. Well, probably that has become a wake up call and left an impact for the steel corporations to make a move and step up.

Another thing that probably pushed the steel manufacturers to take action is the U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to limit fuel economy to 37 miles per gallon by 2020. Not only that, Trump also imposed taxes on steel and aluminum that will potentially increase automaker costs for materials from abroad. In that sense, lower weight materials would make a huge help in this issue.

Source: Automotive News