The dominance of aluminium alloy in todays manufacturing

[Alex728]

today I put together a flat pack office chair.... not a particularly expensive one either - and the base of this was also aluminum alloy. Just a couple of years ago these were normally ferrous (cast iron).

myself and others mentioned this in connection with bicycle frames, where "fashion" was given as the reason. But office chairs and garden furniture?

I'm intrigued now... is it because all this stuff comes from foreign countries now and so it saves on shipping costs? Is it now cheaper to produce than ferrous metal (maybe China is subsidising electricity costs?)

 

[Mussels]

Maybe people want lighter chairs?

 

[flecc]

It maybe, so much processing of bauxite is in third world countries now, often using hydro-electricity.

There's also the boom in recycling in this last decade, and aluminium recycling costs could be lower than iron and steel, lower melting point and possibly easier pure metal separation. Steels have so many additive variations which must complicate recycling.

Also China has to import all it's iron ore, mainly from South America, they don't have a home based bulk source to give it an advantage. The cost of the shipping of that ore is surprisingly high, most ship charters starting at the European end, the trip to South America, loading time, around the Cape and to China taking around three weeks in all at a cost of around £5 millions.
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[Barnowl]

It maybe, so much processing of bauxite is in third world countries now, often using hydro-electricity.

Yes and since the demise of the cod and their banking system Iceland with their cheap Geo-Thermal electricity.

Steel frames and forks, if not prevalent, have been quite trendy for a while now. Unfortunately complete bikes are usually aimed at the single speed or "fixie" market.
I'd really like to go back to steel - complete with some nice fancy lugs - mmmmhhh.

Aluminium garden chairs can fail quite dramatically. At least mine did. Very nasty life threatening shards as well.