Bright prospect of aluminum materials for high-speed railway

China began to build high-speed rail in 2004, and began to produce aluminum alloy vehicles in small quantities in 2006. The Beijing Tianjin intercity high-speed rail was opened in 2008, galloping the aluminum alloy trains with all independent intellectual property rights in China. By the end of 2014, the mileage of high-speed rail in China has exceeded 1 × 104 km。 Generally, the number of aluminum alloy vehicles can be calculated as 3.7 vehicles /km, and about 10t aluminum materials are purchased for each vehicle, including about 8t extruded profiles and about 2T others (Aluminium plates, foils, pipes, wires, forgings, etc.), and about 370kt aluminum materials are purchased.

Bright prospect of aluminum materials for high-speed railway

During this period, about 31000 urban rail vehicles (subway, urban rail, maglev train, etc.) were also manufactured. Although the volume of these vehicles is smaller than that of high-speed rail, the conductor rail of the subway is extruded with 5083 aluminium alloy, and some aluminum materials are also required for the construction of stations, so the purchase quality of aluminum materials for each vehicle can also be estimated at 10t. As of 2014, China has produced about 31000 urban rail vehicles (including exported ones), of which aluminum alloy accounts for about 1/3, and the purchase of aluminum materials is about 103kt.

Since the first 100MN aluminum profile extruder in China was put into operation in Conglin Aluminum Co., Ltd. in October 2002, the large extrusion materials required for the manufacturing of rail vehicles in China have increased year by year, and by 2008, they were all self-sufficient. In 2014, there were about 43 enterprises that can extrude large industrial profiles (with ≥ 45MN extruders), about 108 large extruders, a total extrusion pressure of about 6900mn, and a production capacity (estimated at 15mn/a for 100MN production), It accounts for about 70% of the world’s total production capacity, among which the top 19 have large production capacity

Bright prospect of aluminium materials for high-speed railway

Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China’s railway mileage has maintained a compound annual growth rate of more than 9%. As of 2013, the total railway mileage has exceeded 10% × 104 km, “four vertical and four horizontal” high-speed rail network is basically drawn. China has been building high-speed rail since 2004. The first intercity high-speed rail, Beijing Tianjin high-speed railway, was opened in December 2007. By 2013, the high-speed railway has exceeded 1 × 104 km, accounting for nearly 50% of the total mileage in the world, with a scale of 1.2 under construction × 104 km, China has become the country with the longest high-speed railway operation mileage and the largest scale under construction in the world. In 2015, China’s high-speed railway operation mileage reached 1.9 × 104 km, accounting for 65.5% of the total mileage in the world.