Arcelor Mittal advances lightweight steels for the automotive industry

Arcelor Mittal has unveiled its latest developments in high-strength steels that will reduce the weight of a pickup truck chassis by almost one-quarter, thereby discouraging automakers from focusing on aluminum in deploying energy-efficient vehicles.

The company has expanded the concept of high-strength steels to create lighter and safer environmentally friendly steels that are currently targeting the North American light truck market. At the moment, the company is developing two lines of lightweight steel solutions.

Interestingly, aluminum, which until today was considered a "winged metal", can also be replaced by high-strength steel.

The first option provides for the development and use of currently available advanced high-strength, hardenable steel grades, which allows to reduce weight by up to 174 kg or 23 percent of the total weight of the pickup by changing the material of the box, frame and other parts, compared to the modern base car design (2014). Reducing the average truck weight to this level can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 14 grams per kilometer. The second solution is now in its final stages of development, the company said.

Arcelor Mittal said that many steel companies are now continually working to develop new steel grades that meet the energy efficiency requirements of the automotive industry. But only Arcelor Mittal has achieved some success. At the same time, the high strength of light types of steel is ready to seriously compete with the use of aluminum in the production of lightweight vehicles.