Automotive Applications Council of AISI's SMDI Named Finalist in American Metal Market's 2010 Awards for Steel Excellence

DETROIT, June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of its research initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy, the Automotive Applications Council of American Iron and Steel Institute's (AISI) Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI) has been named a finalist for American Metal Market's 2010 Awards for Steel Excellence in the environmental responsibility / stewardship category. The group will be honored at a ceremony and dinner June 22 in New York City during the Steel Success Strategies conference.

"The steel industry has a long history of environmental stewardship, constantly reinventing our plants and our products for the lowest environmental impacts possible. The UltraLight projects are just one example of how we extend these environmental gains to our customers and consumers," Larry Kavanagh, president of AISI's SMDI, said. "Our goal is to help automakers deliver vehicles with the lowest CO2 impact over their life cycle."

The Automotive Applications Council was selected as a finalist for its UltraLight Steel Automotive initiatives, which consist of four research projects designed to revolutionize steel-intensive vehicle designs. The initiatives demonstrated automakers could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption by reducing vehicle weight while maintaining safety and affordability through lightweighting with steel. The projects proved a weight reduction of 25 to 34 percent is attainable through the use of advanced high-strength steels.

"The UltraLight Steel Automotive initiatives were a $40 million investment by the international steel industry and revolutionized the way steel was used in vehicle applications," Ron Krupitzer, vice president of Automotive Applications for SMDI, said. "The project showed for every 1 million vehicles made according to these designs, an estimated 2.1 million tons of CO2 emissions and 171.3 million gallons of fuel per year could be saved."

Krupitzer added that the UltraLight Steel Automotive initiatives laid the groundwork for other technical advancements, including the current FutureSteelVehicle project, which aims to decrease a vehicle's structural weight by an additional 35 percent, thereby further reducing fuel consumption and total lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.  

American Metal Market's inaugural awards recognize pioneering efforts that companies or institutions have taken to improve competitiveness and demonstrate excellence in their operations across 12 distinct categories: best innovation; best operational improvements; environmental responsibility / stewardship; logistics / transportation provider of the year; best mergers and acquisitions; industry ambassador / advocate of the year; steel producer of the year; service center of the year; scrap company of the year; biggest impact on market over the decade; best turnaround of the decade; and "titan of steel" (over the past 25 years).

Finalists were selected based on an evaluation by a panel of steel industry experts and executives. Winners in each category will be announced during the Steel Success Strategies conference. For more information, visit http://www.amm.com/events/2010/sss25/.

The Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI), a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), grows and maintains the use of steel through strategies that promote cost-effective solutions in the automotive, construction and container markets, as well as for new-growth opportunities in non-traditional steel markets.  The Automotive Applications Council is a part of the SMDI and focuses on advancing the use of steel in the highly competitive automotive market. For more news or information, visit www.autosteel.org.

Automotive Applications Council investors are:

• AK Steel Corporation
• ArcelorMittal Dofasco
• ArcelorMittal USA
• Nucor Corporation
• Severstal North America
• United States Steel Corporation

SOURCE American Iron and Steel Institute