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As many of you have probably noticed, 7075 isn’t easy to find these days if you’re not Airbus, Boeing, or the Federal Government. This shortage has made it increasingly difficult for manufacturers in other sectors to obtain material for their production requirements.
The main reason that 7075 is more difficult to locate is strictly based on capacity constraints at producing mills such as Kaiser and Alcoa. Airbus, Boeing, and government military applications have taken almost all of the capacity for this particular alloy. To give you an idea how much of this alloy is used in the aerospace industry; each Boeing 747 that is manufactured requires approximately 2 million pounds of wrought plate! (Rob Growthy: Alcoa Mill Products)
Due to this, service centers like Schupan Aluminum Sales have very limited allocations from these mills at this point in time. It comes down to the principle law of supply and demand: because of limited availability, what is available domestically tends to be quite expensive. With aerospace production showing no signs of slowing down in the near future, you can reasonably expect a continued lack of domestic availability along with premium prices.
There are some alternatives to this lack of domestic 7075 alloy. Some availability from foreign producing mills can be utilized for certain applications that don’t require ultrasonically tested material. Schupan Aluminum Sales is actively pursuing 7075 plate from these foreign mills to support other manufacturing needs.
If you have specific questions relative to 7075 and its availability or would like to discuss other alloy alternatives, please give your sales representative a call to discuss your options.
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