Auto supplier Sapa sets up shops in Detroit

Auto supplier Sapa is planting a stake in metro Detroit with the establishment of business as well as research and development facilities as part of a growth strategy in lockstep with increased use of aluminum in future vehicles.

Sapa is a Norwegian manufacturer of extruded aluminum, headquartered in Oslo. It is a 50/50 joint venture owned by the Norwegian companies Orkla Group and Norsk Hydro. The global supplier has 6,500 employees and 25 plants in the U.S., mostly extrusion plants but also a tubing plant and some casthouses. In Michigan, there is an extrusion press for automotive customers in Kalamazoo. There are two plants in Canada and two in South America.

The supplier now has a business development office in Birmingham and has leased 10,000 square feet in Troy for a research and development facility that will be ready for occupancy by year’s end.

Matthias Kapp, automotive engineering manager for Sapa Extrusions North America, oversees the new Birmingham office, which has about 13 engineers, metallurgists, quality and sales people to work on contracts with customers such as Ford, Tesla and other suppliers who rely on Sapa for aluminum extrusions for safe but lightweight body structure supports.

Kapp reports to Jack Pell, vice president, commercial, for North and South America, who is based in the Chicago office that serves as the Americas headquarters. Pell said the Troy office will be more pure research and development for vehicles still about three years from launch. This office will also have about a dozen people working on aluminum alloys and parts.

The Detroit presence started a couple years ago with Kapp and a salesman, each working from home, as the company evaluated whether it was necessary to have a larger presence in the Motor City.

“Detroit is still the main hub for auto,” Pell said, and Sapa’s engineers and purchasers are working with automakers on vehicles that won’t be on the market for another three years. Not only does it make sense to be near customers, but it is a strategic move to boost automotive within the huge global company that is in many sectors.

In the automotive sector, Sapa works directly with Ford and Tesla and is a second-tier supplier to other parts makers. The company has worked with Ford since 2011 on the new F-150 pickup, supplying tubing to the Dearborn truck plant to be hydroformed into the roof rail substructure. Kapp said Sapa uses 1 million pounds of aluminum a month to supply the tubing. Sapa is also a lower-tier supplier to the Explorer and Ford’s experimental lightweight car done in conjunction with Magna.

As automakers explore ways to reduce the weight of vehicles to improve fuel economy, the use of aluminum is expected to continue to increase. By 2025, 18% of all vehicles will have all-aluminum bodies compared with less than 1% in 2014, according to Ducker Worldwide, which examines material trends. Additionally, Ducker forecasts 46% of doors will be made of aluminum by the middle of next decade, up from 3%-5%; and 85% of hoods from 35%.