Bonnell Aluminum Announces Expansion Project

Bonnell Aluminum, based in Newnan, Ga., has announced plans to invest $17 million over the next 12 months at its Newnan, Ga., aluminum facility. The investment will include the purchase of an aluminum extrusion line that will be dedicated to serving the automotive and light truck market. The expansion is expected to be complete by early 2014.

Bonnell is a subsidiary of Tredegar Corp. In addition to the auto industry, the company’s products target custom aluminum extrusions that serve the building and construction market and industrial markets.

“We know automotive and light truck manufacturers are facing more stringent fuel-efficiency requirements imposed by recently revised CAFE Standards," says Ira Endres, Bonnell director of sales and marketing. "New fleets must be capable of meeting 54.5 miles per gallon in efficiency by 2025."

To meet this requirement, Endres says,automobile manufacturers are looking at reducing the overall weight of vehicles and making adjustments to powertrains. "Aluminum extrusions have one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios among all materials and offer almost endless design flexibility characteristics to engineers who are challenged to push their ingenuity to meet new and ever-stringent standards," he adds.

"We are on schedule to complete our ISO TS-16949 certification in the second quarter of 2013," Endres continues. "With that, our company will be very well positioned to become a strategic supplier to these manufacturers. We have it all: technical skills, design and engineering support, capacity and company size. And, with Tredegar as our parent corporation, we also have the financial strength and backing to successfully grow our position in the automotive market. We are very excited about the future."