Vincenzo Zinni, CEO of Fusina since 2022, is steering the company toward market leadership through strategic investments and production enhancements. With a strong background in metal trading, he is focused on driving excellence, quality and reliability across key sectors such as marine, transport, silos and defence. In an exclusive interview for e-Magazine "World of Aluminium Flat Rolled Products", Vincenzo shared his thoughts on current challenges and technologies bringing changes in the FRP sector globally.

AL Circle: How do you foresee the market for aluminium flat-rolled products evolving over the next five years? What key market trends are you monitoring, and how does Niche Fusina plan to adapt to these changes?

Vincenzo ZINNI: Aluminium flat-rolled products will increase in volume. Globally. Weight reduction or load maximisation is driving the economy: this is translated in the marine industry by bigger boats with lighter structures for ferries or transport. In road transportation, more regions of the world are looking for weight limitations. For example, a maximum weight transported on the road leads aluminium to replace steel wherever possible (tippers, tankers, structural parts…). Aluminium can be used in harder environments with stronger alloys and better wear resistance or mechanical properties also in tippers or heavier wear environments. In the automotive this is a matter of fact that EV will increase aluminium consumption in every single vehicle. Storage markets are looking for higher towers to make handling aluminium parts easier than steel. In Fusina, we have the brushed surface proposal, which enables a good aesthetic aspect with the homogeneity of the surface.

AL Circle: How do you navigate the import-export dynamics of the global aluminium flat-rolled product market? Are there specific regions where demand is growing or shrinking?

Vincenzo ZINNI: Consolidating our range of products, we see an increasing demand of higher aesthetical quality on silo markets. We have developed a brushed version of our material in order to limit the colour differences created by the various process flows. Thus a 4 mm or a 20 mm thick material will have limited colour differences, instead of common black to grey shades. Globally we see more requests and new projects that were not present during the last 2 years.

AL Circle: Are there any innovative technologies or processes that Niche Fusina is implementing to enhance the quality and efficiency of its flat-rolled products?

Vincenzo ZINNI: As a first step, we have developed our range of brushed surfaces, dedicated to a market where aesthetics is key all over the thickness range. We changed our rolling table, which is improving the backside surface quality. Automation of our hot mill is ongoing, and we will have a brand new cut-to-length line in 2025, which enables Fusina to integrate 100 per cent of the flat-rolled product operations.

To explore the full interview and gain deeper insights into challenges and technologies affecting the global aluminium FRP market and how Niche Fusina Rolled Products is contributing to it, click here.