News Room - Steel Industry

Posted on 30 Jun 2008

High HDG prices may result in substitution by aluminum

Nobody needs to be told about the unprecedented steel prices levels globally in recent times, but the interesting fact is that due to surge in hot dipped galvanized steel prices, the difference between its alternative for some applications like covering ie aluminum sheets has shrunk, although aluminum prices have also increased but to a lesser extant.

The current levels and their specific gravity comparison is as under

Product	SG	SG Ratio	Prices	Price Ratio
HDG Sheets	7.85	2.9	1400
Aluminum sheets	2.71		3700	2.64

Prices are in USD per tonne
Prices are indicative only

Thus, it is very clear that the same thickness of Aluminum sheets will have almost 1/3 weight of an HDG sheet, where as the price levels will be lower then HDG Sheets. Which means that aluminum sheet of same thickness would be cheaper than HDG sheet.

In addition, the advantages of the Aluminum over HDG are well known in the metallurgy as well as in usage especially with respect to corrosion resistance.

As thin HDG is mainly used for roofing or covering applications, possibility exists where we may see some users shifting from the HDG to the Aluminum sheets.

But the question is that weather users would switch to this substitute or not?