News Room 2019

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UACJ Forms Business Alliance with China-Based CITIC Group Subsidiaries

March 25, 2019

UACJ Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & President: Miyuki Ishihara) has, following negotiations with China-based CITIC Group Corporation Ltd. (hereafter, “CITIC Group”), reached a basic agreement to form a business alliance with two CITIC Group subsidiaries, CITIC Bohai Aluminum Industries Holding Company Ltd. (hereafter, “CITIC Bohai Aluminum”) and CITIC Dicastal Co., Ltd. (hereafter, “CITIC Dicastal”) in the automotive aluminum parts and components industry. Through the alliance, the three companies will establish a new joint-venture company to manufacture and sell extruded and machined parts and components.

Through an integrated production system, the new company will manufacture automotive extruded parts and components, beginning with vehicle bumpers and battery casings, while utilizing the UACJ Group’s machining technologies and research and development teams at its R&D Center, and leveraging the leading presence that CITIC Dicastal has established in China’s auto parts market as the world’s number-one producer of automotive aluminum wheels. Furthermore, the new company will handle the marketing of its automotive parts and components while serving as a supply center for automakers and auto parts manufacturers in the Chinese market.

In recent years, demand for aluminum has risen as automobile manufacturers began shifting to lightweight and electric vehicles in response to stricter environmental regulations in various countries of the world. In China, the world’s largest automobile producing country, sales volume is forecast to reach around 35 million vehicles by 2025. Electric vehicles, for which aluminum parts are expected to be used extensively, account for about seven million, or 20%, of that total. Furthermore, on a per-vehicle basis, the amount of aluminum used for automotive body sheet as well as other components is expected to increase substantially in the future.

The UACJ Group has already established automotive aluminum parts and components factories in the United States and Japan. By setting up manufacturing facilities in China, the Group aims to meet brisk demand in China’s rapidly growing market and continue establishing a global supply network capable of promptly delivering high-quality aluminum parts and components to customers worldwide.

Overview of the new company

Additional Information

Overview of CITIC Group

Overview of CITIC Dicastal

Overview of CITIC Bohai Aluminum