Alcoa Inc. plans to centralize its automotive market design, engineering, sales, and marketing specialists at a new center in the Detroit areas beginning next spring. This will include the Automotive Castings, Cast and Forged Wheels unit, along with the AFL Automotive, Advanced Transportation Systems, and Engineered and Mill Products operations.
According to Alcoa, the new facility in Farmington Hills, MI, will bring together all the businesses that serve automakers with products ranging from electrical distribution and crash-management systems, to body structure, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, chassis and suspension components, as well as driveshafts, closure panels, and aluminum wheels.
Alcoa says that these products represent about $3 billion in annual revenue to the corporation. Most of Alcoa’s automotive business is dedicated to trucks and SUVs (about two-thirds, the company says), while passenger cars represent the next largest segment (about one-third), and a smaller percentage targeting high-performance vehicles.
The new Automotive Center will occupy over than 86,000 ft2 (with room for expansion), consolidating some facilities already in place around Detroit.
According to Rick Milner, president of the new Alcoa Advanced Transportation Systems unit and vice president – Automotive, "Alcoa's Automotive Center will give our customers access to unmatched structural design, application engineering, product development and technical problem-solving resources.
"We believe that by combining our capabilities, we will be more capable of creating new product opportunities and solving commercial and technical problems faster and more cost-effectively than ever before," Milner added.