- Alcoa (NYSE:AA) says it has developed a new way of making aluminum sheet for the auto industry that is 30% stronger and 40% more formable than the aluminum it and other companies currently sell.
- The innovation would cast molten metal straight onto a conveyor belt where it is flattened into coils that are sold to the auto industry; currently, aluminum makers have to first cast the metal into slabs before rolling the slabs into coils.
- Aluminum makers and steel makers have invested billions of dollars in the U.S. this decade in new auto-related technologies, plants and facilities, sparked by Ford's switching over to aluminum to build the new F-150, which goes on sale this month.