It was recently learned that Atlanta-based industrial aluminum company Novelis is adding a new customer solution center in Shanghai and doubling capacity at its plant in Changzhou, as it attempts to keep up with rising demand from China.

To help meet the demand, the firm is investing $180 million into expanding its Changzhou plant. Due to be completed in the second half of 2020, it will boost the facility's annual production capacity of heat-treated aluminum sheet by 100,000 metric tons.

After the expansion, Novelis China is expected to contribute about 20 percent of Novelis' global automotive sales from 2024 to 2025.

Novelis has also announced it will establish a customer solution center in Shanghai by the second half of 2019.

As well as supporting Asian customers, Novelis hopes the new center will help sway Chinese manufacturers to adopt aluminum into their automobile manufacturing process, arguing it offers less weight, better fuel consumption, and lower emissions.

In China at present, just 5 percent of vehicle bodies are aluminum. That compares to the more developed markets of North America and Europe, where the proportion is between 12 percent and 15 percent, presenting a huge opportunity for Novelis, a world-leading supplier of aluminum sheet to the automotive industry.

Meanwhile, China's new energy vehicle market kept up its robust growth during the Jan-Nov period, by manufacturing 1.05 million units and selling 1.03 million units, up 64 percent and 68 percent year-on-year respectively.

Introducing aluminum to the European and North American automotive markets more than four decades ago, Novelis products are now featured in 225 car models across the world.