Meet our partners - Euro Steel

There can be no denying the growing acceptance of aluminium by the transport industry at large as a truck body and trailer fabrication material that helps boost profitability. Aluminium may be more expensive than mild steel, but it weighs one third of steel, is anti-corrosive and doesn't need to be painted. What it loses in the price war, it gains in payload potential and reduced maintenance costs.

Colin Wilson is the Managing Director of Euro Steel, a group of companies supplying aluminium and stainless steel products to industry, including the truck transport sector. "There has been a steady increase over the past three years in our supply of aluminium rolled products and extrusions to truck body and trailer manufacturers. Various Euro Steel group companies have been supplying stainless steel to truck body and tanker builders since inception in 1993 but one of the companies has, in fact, over many years, periodically manufactured aluminium fuel tanks for the truck after market and repair industry."

Traditionally, stainless steel merchants have also been involved in the aluminium market, says Wilson. These products tend to be complementary specialist application steels, very distinct from the volume mild steel market. "Aluminium is a growth market with very wide application potential that has not been fully exploited locally, by either the transport or industrial sectors," he adds. "We are not able to supply meaningful statistics but it is very clear that the potential for increasing the proportion of aluminium usage in the trucking sector is enormous. Payload is the key to profitable trucking operations and item for item, aluminium offers significant weight savings, which translate into higher payloads."

A review of the overseas trucking market reveals a wide variety of body, cladding and specialised component items which are manufactured in aluminium, explains Wilson. "The weight and maintenance savings are significant and it is our intention to support a concerted focus, within the Group, on developing these areas of expertise. We have already developed a prototype Aluminium long range fuel tank, offering weight savings and reduced risk of corrosion related fuel contamination, which is price competitive with the Mild Steel version."

Euro Steel is extremely pro-active with regards to production capacity and skills building. "We have significant aluminium fabrication knowledge and skills within the group and intend expanding this skills base significantly, in order to service our target market and exploit our strengths to the full," says Wilson. "Our comprehensive product range includes stainless steel and aluminium flat products, coil, sections, angles, round/square/hexagonal bar, wire and extrusions. In addition, we stock certain coated steel products, such as galvanised sheet and chromadeck. We also offer value-added services, including cut to size, profiling, slitting, blanking, supply and installation of architectural products and fabricated aluminium products."

Explaining that truck bodies can be built almost entirely from aluminium, Wilson concludes: "The existing usage base of aluminium in the trucking sector is relatively low, compounded by normal annual market growth. Consequently, we believe that there is significant future growth path potential, before any ceiling is reached."

October
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