When drone swarps trace brilliant trails across the city's night sky, when eVTOL (Electric vertical take-off and landing Aircraft) completes its maiden flight at the test base, and when the prototype of a flying car makes its debut at an international auto show, an industrial revolution driven by lightweight materials is quietly unfolding at altitudes of over a thousand meters. As the core carrier of the low-altitude economy, emerging equipment such as drones, eVTOL, and flying cars, with their extreme pursuit of lightweight materials, are pushing the aluminum profile industry towards a historic peak of a trillion-yuan market.
I. Demand Explosion: Lightweight materials directly benefit from the surging demand for aviation-grade aluminum. Low-altitude aircraft are extremely sensitive to weight reduction. Aluminum alloy, with its inherent advantage of a "high strength-to-weight ratio", has become the preferred material for the main structure: Unmanned aerial vehicles: The key components such as the fuselage frame, wings, and propeller brackets widely adopt 5-series (aluminum-magnesium) and 7-series (aluminum-zinc) alloys, with an aluminum material consumption of approximately 3 to 5 kilograms per unit. The power cabin shell of DJI's "Fire Wheel" series agricultural drones is made of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy, and the motor's heat dissipation efficiency is increased by 30% through a precise extrusion forming process. eVTOL: The consumption of aluminum materials per unit exceeds 5 tons (accounting for more than 60% of the structural weight), such as the 500-aircraft order of Vorant Aviation directly driving the demand for 2,500 tons of high-end aluminum materials. The V2000 model of Fengfei Aviation adopts CATL's "aluminum-based integrated battery compartment", integrating 5083 aluminum alloy with solid-state battery modules, and increasing the energy density to 400Wh/kg. Market forecast: According to the estimates of GGII, the consumption of aluminum alloy in the low-altitude economy sector will reach 870,000 tons in 2024, with a market size of 23.5 billion yuan. It is expected to exceed 1.25 million tons in 2025, corresponding to a market size of 32 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of over 36%. The penetration rate of high-end alloys is increasing. Traditional 3-series and 5-series alloys are gradually being replaced by higher-performance materials: aviation aluminum alloys such as 7055/7085: Their unit price is 3 to 5 times that of ordinary aluminum materials, and their fatigue strength is increased by 50%. They have been used in eVTOL main load-bearing structures. The new aluminum-lithium alloy C919A-Li, jointly developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and Northwestern Polytechnical University, has a density 5% lower than that of traditional aluminum alloys and a fatigue life three times longer. It is planned to be put into mass production of the main wing beams of logistics drones in 2026.
Under the pressure of the EU's carbon tariff, enterprises such as Mingtai Aluminum Industry are promoting the application of high-end recycled aluminum materials in aircraft. The carbon emissions from producing one ton of recycled aluminum are only 5% of those from primary aluminum. Through grade retention technology, waste aluminum can be directly used in the manufacturing of aviation components, significantly reducing the cost of carbon emissions.
Ii. Product Upgrade: The High value-added market opens up customized profiles as a competitive barrier. Complex components such as drone propellers, radiator shielding covers, and robot joints need to be customized and developed. Xinlianchang has successfully entered the supply chain of leading drone manufacturers by meeting the high requirement of ±0.1mm tolerance for profiles through efficient prototyping and precise extrusion technology. The "all-aluminum robot body" (columns, large arms, etc.) launched by Mingtai Aluminum Industry has achieved mass production, with processing fees ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 yuan per ton and a gross profit margin exceeding 25%. The high-end heat treatment lines it has invested in and built, such as air cushion furnaces and roller bottom furnaces, can produce high-precision products like aviation plates and automotive outer plates. The industrial chain is extending towards high-value links. Aluminum enterprises no longer remain at the supply of billets but are penetrating downstream component manufacturing: Modular supply: Mingtai Aluminum provides aluminum foil materials for pouch cells and at the same time develops aluminum materials for heat sinks with integrated electromagnetic shielding functions, which are applied in unmanned aerial vehicle communication modules. Integration of structure and function: Through 3D printing technology, PLT has reduced the weight of the drone steering gear bracket from 1.2kg to 0.8kg, and the part qualification rate has jumped from 75% to 92%, achieving a dual breakthrough in lightweight and functional integration.
Iii. Industrial Chain Synergy: Regional cluster Effect Emerges, Resources and manufacturing are deeply bound. Regions rich in hydropower and aluminum resources are forming an integrated chain of "direct supply of aluminum liquid - precision die-casting - component processing". Relying on the 300,000-ton green aluminum project of Chinalco, Yunnan Fuyuan has reduced raw material costs by more than 15% through the direct supply model of molten aluminum. By supporting enterprises such as Jinsheng Mould and Gewei Precision, it has shortened the R&D cycle by 30%. Anhui Province has reduced the value-added tax for aluminum alloy deep processing enterprises in the Hefei Low-altitude Economic Demonstration Zone by 50% and established a 20 billion yuan industrial fund to focus on supporting the transformation of aviation aluminum production lines of enterprises such as Ankai Bus. Infrastructure construction drives the demand for supporting aluminum materials. The construction of low-altitude economic infrastructure has given rise to the application of new aluminum materials: Low-altitude airports: Xinbo Co., Ltd. won the bid for the Yangtze River Delta apron project, using aluminum lightweight structures to replace traditional concrete, reducing weight by 40% and having excellent wind erosion resistance. Terminal building facilities: The boarding bridge and grid structure adopt large cross-section aluminum profiles, increasing installation efficiency by 50%, while meeting the strict requirements of corrosion resistance and easy maintenance.
Iv. Technological Upgrade: The expansion of high-end production capacity accelerates. Leading enterprises seize the high-end market through equipment and process innovation: Mingtai Aluminum: Invested in the construction of high-end heat treatment lines such as air cushion furnaces and roller bottom furnaces, increasing the production capacity of aviation plates to 100,000 tons per year, and compressing the delivery cycle from 45 days to 18 days, securing core orders from enterprises such as EHang and Wofei Changkong for the next three years. Lizhong Group: Developed the fourth-generation FW series of aviation aluminum alloys, which have passed the AS/EN9100 aerospace quality management system certification. Its aluminum-based rare earth master alloys have been applied in the manufacturing of large aircraft and aerospace components, and are indirectly used in the electric aircraft of a certain flying car company. Nanshan Aluminum: In collaboration with Boeing, it has developed new alloys, invested 1.2 billion yuan to build an intelligent factory for aviation aluminum sheets, and its products have been applied on a large scale in the C919 large aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle fields.
V. Policy Dividends: Enhanced Certainty of long-term Growth Driven by National Strategy. The low-altitude economy has risen from local exploration to the national strategic level: In 2025, the Two Sessions clearly listed the low-altitude economy as a "national strategic-level industry", promoting airspace opening and infrastructure support. It is estimated that the market size will reach 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035. Special funds have been established in places like Yunnan and Sichuan (such as the 20 billion yuan low-altitude economy fund in Sichuan), focusing on supporting the eVTOL industrial chain. Manufacturers that use domestic 3D printed aluminum parts will be given a subsidy of 150 yuan per kilogram. The standards and certification system are improving, and industry entry barriers are taking shape: airworthiness certification for aviation aluminum materials (such as Lizhong Group passing the EHang Intelligent certification) has become the core threshold for enterprise competition. The national standard GB/T 6892-2006 (Industrial aluminum profiles) is evolving towards higher precision, promoting the industry to clear out low-end production capacity and benefiting enterprises that have already laid out in the high-end market. Summary: The key direction for aluminum enterprises to break through. The impact of the low-altitude economy on the aluminum profile industry is not only "quantitative growth", but also "qualitative leap" : In the short term: Pay attention to the release of orders for drones /eVTOL, and focus on directly benefiting areas such as fuselage aluminum materials and thermal management components. In the medium term: Accelerate the layout of high-end alloy production capacity, and break through core barriers such as aviation-grade 7-series alloys and recycled grade preservation technology. In the long term: Enter the aircraft design-manufacturing collaborative system, upgrade from a material supplier to a solution service provider, and participate in the formulation of industry standards.
Facing the historic opportunity of the trillion-yuan sky market, aluminum enterprises need to accelerate their transformation to a three-in-one model of "lightweight design capability + customized delivery + low-carbon certification". When aluminium materials make a stunning transformation from "materials" to "intelligent carriers" in the low-altitude economy, a revolution driven by technological innovation and industrial collaboration will redefine the future landscape of the aluminium profile industry.
