The automotive industry of China is reviewed with a brief
description of the big two -- the First Automobile Works (FAW) and
the Second Automobile Works (SAW). China has so far mainly
dedicated itself to truck manufacture, but car production is
gathering momentum.
The Chinese auto industry pays considerable attention to economy
in the use of strategic alloying elements. Emphasis is laid on the
use of abundant elements, e.g. SAW has developed an alloy steel
system based on Si-Mn-V-B and an HSLA system using Si-Mn-V-Ti-Re.
These steels are in regular production for large scale truck
manufacture, thus conserving considerable quantities of alloy
elements such as nickel, chromium and molybdenum.
Discussion on base metals highlights the technical advance of
modern cast irons. Aluminum, magnesium and titanium are also
evaluated.
The paper is concluded by consideration of the use of non-
metals with discussions of timber, bamboo and plastics.