Over the past few years, the commercialization matrix of aluminum wire market has witnessed exponential upsurge, given the wire’s strong application portfolio. Aluminum wires for the record, exhibit excellent light weight and corrosion resistance properties owing to which they find a vast application scope in myriad industrial sectors including construction, automotive, energy utilities, and in electrical & transformer infrastructure. In the lure of such a broad application spectrum, aluminum wire market has been gaining immense momentum and to meet the increasing product demand, the core industry players are seen going the whole hog with new business growth strategies.
U.S. Aluminium Wire Market Size, By Application, 2017 & 2024, (Kilo Tons)
A recent instance bearing testimony to the same is of a renowned aluminum wire industry player Kaiser Aluminum Corporation that has recently made it to the headlines for acquiring Imperial Machine & Tool Co., a leading multi-material additive manufacturing company known for its material expertise in tungsten, aluminum, and cobalt chromium among others. If the industry experts are to be believed, the acquisition will be considerably bringing in technological and intellectual properties to broaden Kaiser’s product portfolio and application spectrum in the end markets. Needless to say, such strategic approaches adopted by several other participants to expand their business will be further driving the aluminum wire industry trends in the years to come. Novametal Group, Norsk Hydro, Axon Cable, and Sam Dong are some of the other renowned names faring across the competitive landscape of the global aluminum wire industry.
Elaborating further on the growth prospects of this market, it is prudent to mention that U.S., China, and Germany have emerged as the strong investment hubs for the potential stakeholders. The robust growth of the automobile sector particularly in U.S. and Germany has significantly impacted the commercialization of the regional markets. Estimates further claim that the China aluminum wire market share is forecast to exceed USD 15.5 billion by 2024 at 3.5% CAGR over 2018-2024, on account of growing construction spending, infrastructure and refurbishment activities of the energy sector, and the setting up of a large number of automobile manufacturing facilities.
Impact of the Trump administration slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S.
In line with the U.S. President’s antagonistic trade policies with 25% of tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminum, it wouldn’t be wrong to quote that the move has led to quite a chaotic condition in the global revenue share of the aluminum wire industry. These additional surcharges and the implementation of other countries’ tit-for-tat punitive tariffs have been said to be levied on foreign imports to stop countries like China dumping their cost-effective and cheap metals into the global market. The major consequences of this will be lower aluminum and steel production on the part of manufactures and higher prices for industries and consumers.
Speaking along the same lines, an industry that is not expected to fare well from these new tariffs from U.S., Canada, and other markets, is the automotive sector. Quite overtly, the high aluminum and steel prices will increase the overall cost of North American vehicles.
Analyzing these industry trends there is no denying of the fact that the global tariffs will inevitably affect the price trends of the aluminum wire market. In fact, this market will be vulnerable to many of the political moves between the western dominant countries and the Asian giant.
Despite this cold trade war, industry experts speculate that the unprecedented demand for aluminum either through imports or domestics markets will pave way for the robust commercialization trends of the global aluminum wire business, given the robust product demand from almost every sector. The high tariffs, moreover, are also expected to present the domestic or the local companies in the aluminum wire market with fair opportunities to capture more business share against international counterparts.
Parallel to the growth of the aluminum wire market, it is also imperative to mention that the cutting tools market is also traversing along a lucrative growth graph, given the involvement of the core companies in launching variety of hand & machine tools for cutting and stripping aluminum wires for specific applications. These perpetual efforts undertaken by the companies to strengthen the overall business sphere will have a positive influence on the global aluminum wire industry share, which for the record is anticipated to surpass USD 65 billion by 2024.