Kobe Aluminium’s China plant to start billet output

摘要

Japan’s Kobe Aluminium AutomotivenProducts, which makes aluminum suspensionsnfor passenger vehicles, willnstart producing aluminum billet at itsnSuzhou plant in China from March 2013,na company spokesman said Wednesday.nThe aluminum billet will be used fornproducing automotive suspensions atnthe plant, said Hiroyuki Hashimoto, anspokesman for Kobe Steel which ownsn60% of KAAP. Other KAAP stakeholdersnare trading house Mitsui with 25%nand trading house Toyota Tsusho withn15%. Construction work for the billetnproduction facility has started. Billet production,nusing primary aluminum ingotnsourced locally, will start in March 2013,nHashimoto said. The KAAP Suzhou plantnhas started commercial production ofnaluminum automotive suspensions fromnthis month, Kobe Steel said. It is usingna 6,300-mt mechanical forging pressnto produce 100,000-150,000 units ofnsuspension components, with eachncomponent weighing around 1-5 kg.nThe suspension output will be doublednin March 2013 as a second 6,300-mtnforging press will be brought online, thencompany said.