“The aluminium market is global, and Asia is already a key region for aluminium production and consumption,” Vincenzo ZINNI, CEO & Maël de la BELLIERE, Co-Head of Sales and Marketing, Niche Fusina

Vincenzo ZINNI, Chief Executive Officer, joined Fusina in 2022 when Dada Holding and Invitalia acquired the plant. With a background in metal trading, he manages the group and drives the team to excellence, quality, and reliability. Under his management and focus, the plant is on track to regain its position in the marketplace. This is the result of a series of new investments and production improvements. Fusina, under its new leadership and ownership, has been able to be considered as one of the best suppliers for marine, road transportation, silos or defence applications.

Maël de la BELLIERE, Co-Head of Sales and Marketing, joined Fusina in 2017. With a background in flat-rolled products at Alcoa and in the coil coating industry with Euramax, he is steering the development of markets and products to meet market requests.

AL Circle: Can you provide an overview of Niche Fusina Rolled Products S.r.L.?

Niche Fusina: For over sixty years, the Fusina plant has specialised in producing hard and semi-hard aluminium alloy sheets and plates.

Niche Fusina Rolled Products Srl is one of the historical companies of the aluminium industrial system in Italy and Europe. Today, Fusina’s production plant is dedicated to the casting and rolling of aluminium alloys.

The plant is supplied globally from the Venetian area.

Historically, the Fusina plant was owned by major companies in the aluminium industry until 2017, when venture capitalists acquired it—in the absence of precise industrial strategies, a period of uncertainty and difficulties followed.

In April 2022, the US group Dada Holding and the Fondo Salvaguardia Imprese (headed by Invitalia) decided to relaunch a rich heritage of special products and technologies by acquiring the company.

The management is determined to recreate an important pole in the industrial segment of aluminium rolling, characterised by an offer of innovative, competitive and cutting-edge solutions in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

AL Circle: Does Niche Fusina Rolled Products S.r.L. currently have a presence in the Asian market? If so, in which countries are you operating?

Niche Fusina: Fusina is present in Asia with strategic partners in India, South Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore. We have a limited presence in mainland China, mainly focused on high-quality products. We will continue to review our presence based on local demand.

AL Circle: Why is Niche Fusina Rolled Products S.r.L. interested in focusing on the Asian market? How does the Asian market align with your company's goals?

Niche Fusina: The aluminium market is global, and Asia is already a key region for aluminium production and consumption. Still, the growth opportunities are strong and will remain so for two key reasons:

• Aluminium is following the increasing life standards and is present everywhere. Given the size of the Asian population, with 4.8 billion people representing close to 60% of the global population, and the developing economies alongside what are already economic powerhouses in China, Japan, South Korea, and India, the potential is enormous.
• As the drive for sustainability increases and the inevitable legislation that will follow, aluminium will continue to be seen as a replacement for steel as actual solutions are sought to continue to lightweight industrial vehicles, as part of lowering and controlling emissions.

Asia will follow the US and Europe, where vessels and ferries, dump trucks/tippers, and road tankers are made of aluminium to increase load potential and reduce energy consumption. In Europe, tippers' lifetimes are up to 20 years, as aluminium requires lower maintenance and is less susceptible to corrosion than steel.

 

AL Circle: Who are your primary customers in the Asian market?

Niche Fusina: Our customers are key distributors, purchasing our material and supporting end-users in storing it and organising the deliveries according to their needs.

Our primary market is marine. Our USP is that we offer all marine alloys from 2 to 80mm and widths up to 2500 mm.

Fusina is approved under Asian quality schemes such as the Korean Register and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, as well as other international marine certifications: ABS, Bureau Veritas, DNV, Lloyd Register, and RINA.

Shipyards love our material. Its flatness and stability in production for nesting or welding make Fusina a key supplier worldwide, and Asia is no exception.

Our alloys 5083 and 5456 are purchased from 2 to 60 mm under marine certification and above with a 3.1 certificate. We can supply up to 2500 mm wide, which enables less welding on site and more efficiency for nesting.

Silo: Fusina is a recognised supplier of silos manufacturers, tower storage. Our added value is our brushing line, which removes colour shade differentials on our 5454, 5083, and 5754 alloys. From 5 to 40 mm, aluminium rolled products follow different process flows, which will impact the colour of the surface, with various dark shades. A slight brushing step erases the difference and gives the tower a better uniformity.

General engineering: Our material is used in a variety of industrial applications, from stairs in wind energy towers (tread plates) to transformers for the railways, heating plates for food packaging machines, and tooling parts for machinery. Our 6082, 6061, 6016, 2017, 5083, and all other alloys are delivered from 2 to 80 mm.

AL Circle: What is your overview of Asia's aluminium rolled products market?

Niche Fusina: We are developing our presence in the region. What we are facing in short-term, is a market based on aggressive prices and low volume.

The market dynamics in the region have changed significantly in the last five years. It is clear that the pandemic and consequent tightness of supply into the region from Europe changed the buying habits of many key users. Through a lack of choice, they turned to Asian supply almost exclusively. To this end, the general aluminium commodities market is lost to suppliers outside the region. Still, in key sensitive markets, we are seeing again a requirement for non-Asian supply.

An excellent example of this is the Marine market, where the quality of the product and trust in the certification process and longevity of the material are paramount. It is true that there are a number of Asian suppliers who can supply Marine materials with certification. However, it is also a fact that, in Marine terms, the Asian producer has been relatively new to the market in the past ten years. A key number of Shipbuilders of all types prefer the security of supply from producers who have been in the market for 30+ years, such as Fusina. This is where the potential for Fusina lies, working with key partners in the specialised product areas and locations. One of the key changes in the market in the last ten years has been the relocation of shipyards to the Asian region where traditionally labour costs are lower, but the workforce remains skilled and hard-working but allied to this, they still require the security of an established quality product to work with.

AL Circle: What are the main challenges and opportunities in the Asian aluminium rolled products market?

Niche Fusina: Although the pandemic and uncertainties reduced Fusina’s presence in Asia, the quality of our products and the new management industrial strategy are enabling us to regain our market share.

A new wide cut-to-length line, expected to be up and running by summer 2025, will improve our delivery performance. Our production will be fully internalised (up to 2500 mm wide) and under full control of performance and logistics.

Challenges are:

• The shipping conditions with the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden which are making the delivery time longer with the South African route.
• Low-price competition from Asia when the customer is not requesting specific certifications.

AL Circle: How do you see the demand for aluminium FRP evolving in Asia in the next 5-10 years?

Niche Fusina: According to our research, Asia will consume more flat-rolled products. Compared to all the growing countries, aluminium will respond to sustainability, recycling, and higher-end requests.

Infrastructure like rail is already impacting aluminium, with lighter trains or electrification, lower cost of ownership as aluminium is easier to maintain, and, being less sensitive to corrosion, lasting much longer than other metals.

Building and construction are looking for greener parts and 100% recyclable content and will steer for more aluminium.

Road transport, cars, trucks, and trailers are using lighter metals to reduce the total usage cost, reduce oil consumption, and increase loading capacity.

AL Circle: What are the flagship products of Niche Fusina Rolled Products S.r.L. that you believe will appeal to the Asian market?

Niche Fusina: Fusina’s flagships are:

• Hard alloys for tippers, such as our Endural^®
• High elongation alloys like our 5182RTS^® with 26%
• Nautical® range is the widest certified and available in the market, including all alloys and dimensions.

AL Circle: What role does sustainability play in your product development and market strategy?

Niche Fusina: Sustainability in Fusina is delivered on two main fronts:

• Increase the utilisation of post-consumer scrap / recycled material: We have developed a network of suppliers within a 250 km radius of our plant to reduce impact and manage our supply chain efficiently. 
• Reduce our greenhouse gas emissions: Fusina has changed the purchase of aluminium prime to low-carbon aluminium. We aim to source only prime from hydro-powered smelters.

With the support of CarbonChain, we have built up a reporting tool that measures our carbon footprint emissions at the level of the final products delivered to the customer. The end-user will know precisely the level of emissions for the volume and product delivered.

AL Circle: What are your short-term and long-term goals for Niche Fusina Rolled Products S.r.L. in Asia?

Niche Fusina: After 2022, we started to rebuild our relationship with our partners.

The next step is to add new markets to our portfolio in Asia:

• Road transportation is the main market for Fusina in Europe, but this is different in the region.
• In defence, aluminium plates are an asset for ballistic protection. The bottom of electric cars is made of an aluminium sheet to protect the battery against fragments; the same goes for military vehicles.

AL Circle: How do you plan to navigate the dynamic market conditions in Asia?

Niche Fusina: Fusina has limited the range of commodities we sell to the market in general.

Our focus is being in higher-end markets were quality, reliability and sustainability matters, this give us the opportunity of being impacted less by the more general market fluctuations over which we have no control but can be harmful to the plant’s future.

The actual pressure from all the authorities on CO₂ emissions is increasing; As of August 2024, China is increasing its control, not only on global emissions but also on net emissions.