Interview with Liu Qing, Managing Director and Vice President of Asia Automotive Business of Nobles China

Since this year, the new crown epidemic has been raging globally, and major economies around the world have announced shutdowns. For a while, the epidemic has become an important factor affecting the world economic trend.Under the cover of the nest, there are complete eggs.The aluminium industry and related applications have also been affected to varying degrees.What is the impact of the aluminium market for automotive lightweight which has been favored by the industry in recent years?Recently, our journalist interviewed Liu Qing, the Managing Director of Nobels China and Vice President of Nobels Asia Automotive Business, the main supplier of automotive aluminium sheet in the world through online video.

Liu Qing said that there are two key factors affecting automotive aluminum consumption: one is dependent on the development of the automotive industry; the other is to place it in the environment of global market economy.Currently affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, several major global economies have been in the phase of shutdown. Especially in foreign countries, no signs of improvement have been seen at present. This makes it a priority for some enterprises to reduce expenditure, reduce costs, ensure cash flow safety and ensure that enterprises can "survive" in a special period before upgrading and transformation can be considered.As a result, plans that some companies were prepared to put into the lightweight market had to be shelved or changed.

According to data released by the China Automotive Industry Association, domestic automobile production and sales in the first quarter of this year were 3474,000 and 3672,000, respectively, with a 45.2% and 42.4% year-on-year decrease.New energy automobile production and sales completed 105,000 and 114,000 vehicles respectively, with a 60.2% and 56.4% year-on-year decrease.From the data point of view, the first quarter production and sales declined significantly year-on-year, but with the domestic epidemic being controlled, the automotive industry accelerated the resumption of production, and overall production and sales also showed signs of gradual warming up.The data shows that in March, the domestic automobile production and sales decreased significantly, with 1422,000 and 143,300 vehicles, respectively. Ring-to-Ring ratio increased by 399.2% and 361.4%, respectively. Ring-to-Ring ratio decreased by 35.3% and 35.8%, respectively.Recently, the April economic data published by the State Statistics Bureau showed that the recovery of the industry was more evident. In April, the automotive manufacturing industry increased by 5.8% year-on-year, significantly higher than in March and the same period.From January to April, the value-added of the automotive manufacturing industry declined 15.0% year-on-year, narrowing by 11 percentage points from the quarter.

"From the data just released by the Automotive Industry Association, we can see that China's economic market has recovered gradually since March. Therefore, the pattern of China's automotive market in the first half of the year should be optimistic, but the medium and long term are still worrying because the automotive market is a global industry chain market, affected by the epidemic, there are still many uncertainties in this growth."Liu Qing said that the development of the automotive industry still needs to be supported by the worldwide resumption of production and the recovery of the global economy, while the improvement of the automotive aluminium market is still pending the improvement of consumer demand. Therefore, the whole industry will face the situation of eliminating the superior and the inferior and reshuffling the brand, but there will still be more opportunities for some high-quality business enterprises.

"The impact of the new crown epidemic on the global economy exceeds our predictions, and it may be difficult for both the European and American economies and the Chinese economy to return to their pre-epidemic status."For future market forecast, Liu Qing is more worried.

Under the influence of the epidemic, how to expand the automotive aluminum market and promote automotive lightweight?Nobelis, as the main enterprise leading the automotive aluminum market, has the most voice from scratch to a certain amount of production at present.

Liu Qing said that Nobles has always been "hand-in-hand" to help customers understand four major processes, from material characteristics to design concepts, and to achieve a localized supply chain to reassure customers.From process to production, help host factories establish corresponding production process system, and bring Nobels'innovations and R&D achievements in automotive aluminium to host factories.

Liu Qing believes that regarding the advantages of all-aluminium cars, we should not only promote the concept of lightweight and environmental protection, but also guide consumers to pay attention to its driving experience. Like the aluminium housing of an Apple mobile phone, the aluminium material highlights the texture and fashion of the mobile phone, and the feeling of all-aluminium cars is also different. Let consumers understand and appreciate the fashion of aluminium.

Recently, Nobels, in conjunction with Beiqi New Energy Automotive, successfully developed the first high-end smart pure electric medium SUV, ARCFOXalphaT, under the high-end brand ARCFOX.The high-end atmosphere of the car, full of sense of motion and technology, is called quality.Liu Qing said that because consumers have very high requirements for the appearance and design of the model, the requirements for materials are also very high. The successful cooperation with the host factory is based on seamless connection of technology, materials, technology and research and development.The car can last up to more than 600 kilometers, which completely solves consumers'anxiety and worry about mileage.

Nobles is the world leader in aluminium rolling products and the world's recycling and recycling enterprise of scrap aluminium. The first production plant in China was officially completed and put into operation in Changzhou in October 2014. This is the first automotive aluminium sheet heat treatment manufacturer in China.Phase II project was completed in May 2019.The project is a new 100,000-ton continuous annealing heat treatment production (CASH) with an annual output of 100,000 tons, a high-speed vertical slicer and a fully automatic packaging line with an investment of 180 million US dollars in the Norebeis Changzhou plant.Liu Qing said that if the capacity is reached in full, the company will reach 180,000 to 200,000 tons of output supply each year, accounting for about 30% of the domestic market share.

Not long ago, Nobelis Aluminum successfully completed the acquisition of world-class Aeronautical Aluminium alloy sheet and automotive strip manufacturer - Iris Aluminum.Liu Qing said that since the Nobels Changzhou factory and the Aluminum Industry Zhenjiang factory are located in Jiangsu Province, they are close to each other and have convenient transportation, the business docking will be more conducive to enhancing Nobels'comprehensive strength in the automotive aluminum market.

"For the automotive aluminium market, although aluminium is already a good choice of materials, the proportion is still small, less than 10% of the entire automotive market. Compared with the 100-year position of steel materials in the automotive industry, there are still many difficulties to overcome and problems to solve.However, at the same time, we should also see considerable market development space. At present, the Aluminization rate of European and American automobiles accounts for more than 5%, but this data is less than 2% in China. Compared with the advanced international market, there is still a large market space in China. Therefore, we should make greater efforts to open up the market, continue to research and innovate, and help host factories adapt to the aluminium production process and get more consumers.Approval."Liu Qing thinks.