Australian shipbuilder Austal has committed to using LocAl® lower-carbon Aluminium supplied by Capral to support their initiatives in sustainable manufacturing and responsible procurement.
The Austal product range includes vehicle passenger ferries, patrol boats, high-speed support vessels, surface combatants, and revolutionary, multi-role vessels.
Capral has been a long-term supplier to Austal, providing proprietary aluminium extrusions and rolled products to support their diverse manufacturing needs.
With a clear focus on integrating sustainable development priorities into the organisation's operations, business planning, and investment decision-making, Austal is taking great strides in aligning its business strategies and operations with the interests and needs of its stakeholders, customers and communities.
Early in 2023, Austal committed to switching their locally extruded aluminium to the LocAl® Green aluminium introduced by Capral. LocAl® Green has carbon emissions of 8kg CO2e/kg Al*.
"Austal has made a public commitment to achieve a reduction of embodied emissions, and this includes Scope 1, 2 and 3-upstream."
"In selecting materials for incorporation into our products, we consider material longevity, durability, and reparability to ensure the vessels we construct are of high quality as well as efficient and long-lasting. Our aim is to manufacture vessels that are highly economical and sustainable over their lifecycle"
"Aluminium suffers from little to no corrosion. Marine-grade aluminium ensures that protective coatings are not required on all hull surfaces, limiting materials used to construct our ships. Correctly designed aluminium structures will operate effectively for up to 30 years without any structural issues or needing a single coat of paint."
"Furthermore, aluminium is highly economical to recycle. We recognise, however, that producing aluminium is energy intensive when compared with steel."
In 2023, Capral became the first Australian aluminium extruder to be certified under the ASI Performance Standard V3 and Chain of Custody (CoC) V2. The certifications apply to all of Capral's 26 facilities.