IZA-HZL demands use of galvanised steel in auto manufacturing

International Zinc Association (IZA), in a joint initiative with IIT-Bombay and Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL), have called for using galvanised steel in the local automotive manufacturing to enhance its sustainability.
According to experts, galvanised steel is one of the simplest, but most effective innovations that has revolutionised the global automotive industry. It protects the steel from corrosive attack acting as a continuous and lasting shield between steel and the atmosphere.
"All car models exported from India are galvanised as per the regulatory norms mandated by US/Europe, but the same models are not galvanised for Indian market.
"The overall benefit to the automaker to convert the 400 kilogram car body-in-white from cold rolled steel to galvanneal is estimated to offset the material and processing cost," IZA Consultant (Canada) Kenneth D'Souza told reporters here.

The domestic car makers, the sixth largest in the world, uses galvanised steel for the body panels, but only for the export models. This steel has been used for decades across Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea for body panels. The wide use is mainly owing to the regulatory frameworks in the developed economies, he said.
Local car makers use coated steels to give the look and feel of international cars, but not all cars provide perforation warranties, which is the right of the customer.
The use of galvanised advanced high strength steels helps in the reduction of car body weight, emissions and improves safety performance along with fuel efficiency, which is in line with the requirement of the new age cars for Indian roads, Hindustan Zinc COO (Smelters) Vikas Sharma said.

The country also loses around 5 per cent of GDP every year due to corrosion losses vis-a-vis around 3.2 per cent in the United States, so we have a significant potential to save the country from 1.5 to 2 per cent of GDP loss by galvanising, IZA said.