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 ., said last month after the F-150 took the North American Truck of the Year award.
Aluminum for delivery in three months slid 2.3 percent in 2015 to $1,810 a metric ton Friday on the London Metal Exchange. Cash prices will climb 16 percent this year to an average $2,072, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a Feb. 23 report.
The F-150 is the largest production ever of an aluminum-bodied vehicle.
Honda Motor Co. is also using more of the lightweight metal to improve fuel mileage. As more carmakers follow suit, there will be a “tectonic shift” in demand from the auto industry for the metal, according to Sean Stack, an executive vice president and head of North America rolled products at Aleris Corp., a U.S. aluminum producer.
