The current status and development trends of China's aluminum profile industry, as well as the global situation.
Release time:
2019-12-16 11:07
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Aluminum is a major metallic material—ranging from a luxury commodity used to craft exquisite items to an everyday metal found in countless households. With its diverse varieties, wide-ranging applications, and high degree of industrial interconnectivity, aluminum plays a vital role in economic development, national defense, social progress, and stable employment. Among these applications, the one most closely tied to people’s daily lives is aluminum’s use in construction.
Aluminum is a relatively young metallic material. Thanks to its numerous natural advantages, it has rapidly risen—within just over a century since its debut—to become the second most widely used metal in human applications, second only to steel. The modern world has thus entered a new era of lightweight materials.
Aluminum alloys are lightweight, boast high specific strength, exhibit excellent corrosion resistance, can be efficiently recycled and reused with a high recovery rate, require low energy input during recycling, and are abundant in resources. Aluminum can play a significant role in the development of a low-carbon economy. Its environmentally friendly and green characteristics make aluminum an essential foundational raw material. Aluminum itself is not a “high-energy-consuming, high-emission, resource-intensive” product; rather, it is an indispensable metallic material for both the national economy and human life. Aluminum is a young, burgeoning metal material, and the aluminum industry is a sunrise industry. In the era of lightweight materials, aluminum stands out as the primary metallic material.
Aluminum and aluminum alloy products are predominantly available in the form of castings and die-cast parts. After die casting, these parts require only minor mechanical processing to become functional components. There are also semi-finished aluminum products, including plates, strips, foils, as well as tubes, bars, profiles, and other shaped materials. The applications of aluminum are extraordinarily broad; in every aspect of human life—food, housing, and transportation—aluminum is ubiquitous. Both in China and abroad, the largest application area for aluminum is the construction sector. In China, architectural aluminum profiles account for 70% of total aluminum extrusion production and approximately 38% of total aluminum production. When combined with the use of aluminum plates and foils in construction, their share approaches or even exceeds 50% of the total aluminum consumption.
Residential buildings, industrial plants and warehouses, shopping malls and stores, offices, hotels and guesthouses, cultural and recreational facilities, government and public utility buildings, multi-purpose buildings (integrated complexes)—all these types of structures provide ample opportunities for the use of aluminum.
Over the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, China’s economic development has been remarkably rapid, and the construction industry has spurred new growth in China’s aluminum industry. Architectural aluminum products are no longer limited to just aluminum doors and windows; architectural aluminum profiles are by no means low-value-added products. As demands continue to rise in areas such as building height, functionality, and energy efficiency, the requirements for architectural aluminum materials are becoming increasingly stringent and sophisticated. Although aluminum’s excellent thermal conductivity is detrimental to building energy efficiency, existing insulated aluminum profiles and insulated aluminum doors and windows have already met the requirements of energy-efficient buildings while retaining the advantages of aluminum doors and windows—such as their lightweight nature, reduced load on building walls, fire resistance, and the ability to offer a wide range of colors and easy shaping. The application of aluminum-wood composite doors and windows further enhances their elegance and sophistication. Moreover, the variety of surface treatments available for aluminum better satisfies diverse and colorful decorative needs.
Windows and doors, depending on the materials used, include wooden windows and doors, steel windows and doors, aluminum windows and doors, plastic windows and doors, color-coated steel sheet windows and doors, fiberglass-reinforced plastic windows and doors, and composite windows and doors. In 2009, aluminum windows and doors accounted for 55% of China's building windows and doors. In 2004, in North America, the primary end-use for extruded aluminum products was in architectural structures, accounting for 33.7%.
Aluminum materials are widely used in construction for applications including aluminum doors and windows, architectural curtain walls, roofing systems, structural components, and outdoor courtyards. These applications make use of aluminum profiles—such as extruded aluminum shapes, aluminum profiles, aluminum tubes, and aluminum bars—and aluminum sheets—such as rolled aluminum products, aluminum single panels, aluminum composite panels, and aluminum honeycomb panels—for both interior and exterior architectural decoration, ceiling and suspended ceiling installations, balcony railings, and courtyard fences. More broadly, aluminum is also employed in various types of bridges—including river bridges, floating bridges, pedestrian overpasses, and platforms at automotive exhibitions. The applications of curtain walls, roofing systems, and sun-shading elements are steadily increasing. Advanced processing techniques, such as continuous oxidation coloring and roll-coating of single panels, aluminum composite panels, and aluminum honeycomb panels, keep pace with the times and continually meet the growing, ever-more stringent demands of the construction industry—in terms of quality, variety, and cost.
China has developed and established a diversified, multi-tiered, and multi-variety product structure for architectural doors, windows, and curtain walls, creating vibrant and colorful urban skylines.
Aluminum structures represent a significant and growing application area. While they have already flourished and diversified extensively overseas, China still has considerable room for development in this field. Just as steel offers “H”-section beams, aluminum now also produces “H”-section profiles specifically designed for structural construction. Aluminum boasts a lightweight nature, high specific strength, excellent corrosion resistance, a wide variety of surface finishes, and exceptional recyclability—all of which help reduce ground loads. Domestically produced aluminum “H”-section beams have already been successfully employed at the Shanghai F1 Race Track and in the Botanical Garden of the China Pavilion at the World Expo. To date, three all-aluminum pedestrian overpasses have been constructed in urban areas: one in Xidan, Beijing; another in Xujiahui, Shanghai; and a third on Qingchun Road in Hangzhou.
China's Aluminum Corporation has experienced a remarkable surge over the past nearly 30 years, driven by the rapid development of China's construction industry. Previously, China had a weak foundation and accumulated significant debt; thus, after the reform and opening-up policy was implemented, construction immediately entered a period of rapid growth. Although this growth hasn't yet reached its peak, demand for architectural aluminum continues to rise steadily—though the pace may vary.
Since 2000, China has gradually shifted from a development strategy that prioritized coastal regions to a strategy aimed at achieving balanced development. Starting in 2000, the Western Development Initiative was launched; in 2001, the goal of urbanization was proposed. Subsequently, the “Revitalization of the Old Industrial Bases in Northeast China” and the “Strategy for the Rise of Central China” were also introduced. Beginning in 2000, China intensified its efforts to invest in inland and underdeveloped regions. On May 28, 2010, Hu Jintao chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to study the overall guiding principles and policy measures for deepening the implementation of the Western Development Strategy.
In 2008, China’s urbanization rate was 45.68%. Over the following roughly 13 years, it continued to grow rapidly, reaching between 47.93% and 53.37%. As a result, the construction of public facilities and housing will keep expanding. The goal of urbanization and cities is “to make life better.” Given the strong demand driving China’s urbanization development, the architectural aluminum industry continues to face bright growth opportunities—key to seizing these opportunities lies in effectively grasping the trends of our times.
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