Commercial Aircraft (COMAC)’s manufacturing subsidiary, Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing has placed orders to procure aluminum from Aleris, a key player in aluminum extruded and rolled products, specification alloy production, and aluminum recycling, for producing several sets of COMAC's C919 test planes.
As part of the COMAC C919 program, Aleris will supply a combination of high-tech aluminum alloy possessing high-damage tolerance and traditional aluminum alloys for making lower wing covers in a single-aisle commercial airplane.
Initially, Aleris will deliver the materials for the production of the COMAC test planes from its facility situated in Koblenz, Germany. The company plans to deliver the material for test planes production over a long-term basis from its new state-of-the-art rolling mill, which is being constructed in Zhenjiang, China. The $350 million Chinese facility is being developed to fulfill the growing demand from local and global aerospace and other commercial plate applications.
Aleris aims to start non-aerospace commercial plate production at the new Zhenjiang plant in Q1 of fiscal 2013. The company intends to launch qualification programs for major customers worldwide to start marketing aerospace material in fiscal 2014.
Senior Vice President, John Zhu, who is also the President of Aleris China, stated that this order is a significant step forward for the company as it seeks to exploit the momentous growth experienced by the Asian aerospace industry. The company is happy to collaborate with COMAC and anticipates supplying advanced high-quality materials that will facilitate the production of COMAC’s high-performance aircraft.
Source: http://www.aleris.com