Alcoa 1996 Annual Report Download - page 21

19
are useful in treating acidic
soils. Feedstocks for these prod-
ucts are materials generated
during the production of mag-
nesium, which is Northwest’s
principal product line. Field
testing was completed in 1996,
and market acceptance was
described as very encouraging.
Shipments will begin in the
first half of 1997.
Recordbreakers. A 1996 year-
end review at Alcoa Fujikura’s
Spartanburg, S.C. telecommuni-
cations facility identified 30 new
records set for productivity,
output, and scrap reduction.
This performance was achieved
despite the fact that many of
the employees involved were
new to the company. Since the
operation was in a high growth
mode in 1996, roughly a third of
the employees had less than
one year of service.
Cast Wheels Rolling Out.
Alcoa and Superior Industries
International teamed up in
1996 to form a new company
offering cast aluminum wheels
for commercial trucks and
buses. Developed jointly, the
new wheels have now gone into
limited production at Superior’s
plant in Van Nuys, Calif. and
are being tested by several
truck fleets. They’ll be market-
ed by Alcoa’s existing wheel
sales organization, including
introduction at several trade
shows in early 1997.
Wheels for Light Trucks. A
new $20 million forged wheel
facility is nearing completion
at Alcoa’s Cleveland, Ohio
plant site. Designed to a capac-
ity of 900,000 wheels a year,
the plant will make aluminum
wheels for Chrysler’s Dodge
Ram pickup trucks. It’s the first
step in a multiphase plan to
increase production of forged
aluminum wheels for the U.S.
light truck market.
Innovation Wins a Contract.
Alcoa Aluminio won a contract
in Brazil from French carmaker
Peugeot to furnish a foundry
wheel alloy specifically devel-
oped for Peugeot’s application.
It’s the first alloy that Aluminio
has invented for an end user.
Anticipated 1997 shipments:
2,800 metric tons.
New Brand Names in Brazil.
In 1996 the flat-rolled products
division of Alcoa Aluminio
launched two proprietary alu-
minum roofing products —
Habitat and Alcoflon — for resi-
dential and
industrial
buildings.
Now, two
more brands
are rolling
out, named
Pantanal and
Agrotelha. These are sheet roof-
ing products for grain storage
and chicken farm buildings. It
was a timely launch because
Brazil is emerging as the
world’s largest producer of
grain, notably soy beans, and
the largest producer and
exporter of chickens.
Plastic in China. Asian-
American Container Manufac-
turing Co., a 1996 start-up in
China by Alcoa Closure
Systems International, is up
and running and has now
received its first order for PET
plastic beverage bottles. First
customer is Tianjin Coke,
which ordered seven million
1.25-liter straight-wall bottles.
Promising By-Products.
Alcoa’s Northwest Alloys facili-
ty in Addy, Washington is
building a new plant to supply
calcium and magnesium lime
and fertilizer products to the
Northwest region of the U.S.
Crops such as corn and pota-
toes often need magnesium
fertilizer, and calcium silicates
Historical Note
Charles Dickens
on Aluminum
What are your favorite words from Charles Dickens? Ours
are not to be found in the copper of David Copperfield nor the
nickel of Nicholas Nickleby but rather the aluminum of
an essay titled, simply, “Aluminum.” This appeared in March,
1857 in Dickens’ weekly publication, Household Words.
■
“But within the course of the last two years…a treasure has
been divined, unearthed, and brought to light…What do you
think of a metal as white as silver, as unalterable as gold, as
easily melted as copper, as tough as iron; which is malleable,
ductile, and with the singular quality of being lighter than
glass? Such a metal does exist, and that in considerable
quantities on the surface of the globe.
■
“The advantages to be derived from a metal endowed with
such qualities are easy to be understood. Its future place as
a raw material in all sorts of industrial applications is
undoubted, and we may expect soon to see it, in some shape
or other, in the hands of the civilized world at large.”
Alcoflon roofing tops the Maracan soccer stadium in Rio de Janeiro.