Bonnell Aluminum, a subsidiary of Tredegar Corporation, announced that it will be investing $17 million over the next 12 months to fund an expansion project that will include the purchase of a new state-of-the-art aluminum extrusion line dedicated to serve the growing demand from automotive and light truck original equipment manufacturers. The designated site for this expansion project will be the company’s manufacturing facility in Newnan, Georgia. Planned startup is early 2014.

“We know automotive and light truck manufacturers are facing more stringent fuel-efficiency requirements imposed by recently revised CAFE Standards," commented Ira Endres, Director of Sales and Marketing. "New fleets must be capable of meeting 54.5 miles per gallon in efficiency by 2025. In order to meet this requirement, in addition to powertrain enhancements, automobile manufacturers are also looking at reducing the overall weight of their vehicles. Aluminum extrusions have one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios among all materials and offer almost endless design flexibility characteristics to engineers who are challenged to push their ingenuity to meet new and ever stringent standards."

According to Ducker Worldwide LLC, demand for extrusions in automotive applications is expected to increase at an annual rate beyond the forecasted Gross National Product. As a consequence, the aluminum extrusion industry needs additional qualified manufacturers capable of meeting automotive quality requirements.

"We are on schedule to complete our ISO TS-16949 certification in the second quarter of 2013," added Endres. "With that, our company will be very well positioned to become a strategic supplier to

these manufacturers. We have it all: technical skills, design and engineering support, capacity and company size. And with Tredegar as our parent corporation, we also have the financial strength and backing to successfully grow our position in the automotive market. We are very excited about the future."