Nippon Steel to sell U.S. car springs

Nippon Steel Corp. said Tuesday it has reached a basic agreement with Colorado-based Titanium Metals Corp. (TIMET) to sell automobile springs developed by the U.S. firm.

Nippon Steel will use titanium alloy supplied by TIMET to process into springs for sale to Japanese automobile and spring manufacturers.

Nippon Steel aims to initially sell springs for around 100,000 vehicles a month, company officials said.

Titanium springs have the strength of alloy steel but can weigh up to 70 percent less. They need no surface coating due to their noncorrosive nature and allow more freedom in the design of automobiles, company officials said.

Titanium is being increasingly used in Japan for exhaust parts of motorcycles, and annual consumption of titanium is expected to exceed 600 tons in 2002 compared with 20 tons in 1997, they said.