Canada Looks to Make Push With Aluminum Production

Canada’s National Research Council is spearheading research efforts with provinces and industry to develop innovative aluminum products and grab a share of the market in the transportation sector forecast to be worth more than $65 billion by 2020.

A newly formed alliance called ALTec Industrial Research R&D Group is consolidating research efforts in the Canadian aluminum sector.

ALTec already has 23 members and partners that will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and Canada’s most advanced expertise in aluminum forming, assembling, corrosion control and performance validation.

A major partner, the ministère de l’Économie-de la Science et de l’Innovation du Québec, has contributed C$450,000 ($348,000). Rio Tinto Aluminum is contributing C$125,000 ($97,000) to the partnership.

The moves come as aluminum increasingly is being used to manufacture components for lightweight vehicles that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and meet incrementally stringent fuel-consumption requirements.

“Canadian businesses include aluminum in the design of their vehicles, but we saw a gap in knowledge transfer and this is where ALTec comes in,” Michel Dumoulin, NRC general manager-Automotive and Surface Transportation, says in a statement.