Alcoa 1999 Annual Report Download - page 20

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Progress in Continuous Casting
Alcoa is stepping up its efforts to capture the efficiencies of
continuous casting. Development of this technology was begun
earlier in the 1990s at Davenport. Recent moves:
> Purchase of Kaiser Aluminum Corporation’s Micromill™
assets. These include intellectual property, pilot line facilities
in Pleasanton, Calif. and a pilot plant near Reno, Nevada.
The Reno plant will be operated to further refine the thin strip
continuous casting process for aluminum sheet applications.
> Acquisition of substantially all the assets of Golden Aluminum
Company, a unit of ACX Technologies, for $41 million. Golden’s
operations included a shuttered rolling facility in San Antonio,
Texas and a rolling facility in Fort Lupton, Colo. The Fort Lupton
mill was subsequently sold, but the San Antonio facility has
been reopened and restarted to continue development of slab-
caster technology, one form of continuous casting. The plant
will be converted to a non-can sheet commercial rolling mill,
and production is expected to begin shortly.
> Relocating a roll caster from Alcoa’s Avilés smelter in
Spain to its Alicante rolling mill there and commissioning it to
produce foil stock.
Alcoa now has 22 continuous casters operating around the globe.
18 NEWS99
As Others See Us
Several surveys reported in late 1999 by leading financial publi-
cations rank Alcoa among the pacesetters in global business.
Financial Times.
In a compilation of “The World’s
Most Respected Companies” by the Financial Times and
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Alcoa ranked first among resources
companies and 21st among all companies. Rankings were
determined by surveying company CEOs in 75 countries
worldwide.
Industry Week.
Earlier in the year, Alcoa was selected as one
of the World’s 100 Best-Managed Companies by Industry Week
magazine.
Actualidad Economica,
Spain’s principal economic weekly,
named Alcoa “The Most Dynamic Multinational in Galicia,”
based on voting by readers. The magazine is one of the Pearson
Group, which publishes the Economist and the Financial Times.
The award was presented by the president of Galicia, the
province where Alcoa’s San Ciprián facilities are located.
Business Review Weekly
in Australia, polling CEOs and
CFOs of the nation’s largest companies, named Alcoa World
Alumina-Australia to the “Most Admired” list, including
first place rankings for growth potential and for commitment
to community, environment and ethical issues.
Fernando
Saez Jover
Maintenance
supervisor
Alicante, Spain
Simone Davis
Mechanical
tradesperson
Anglesea, Australia
Greg Garza
Senior electrical
maintenance planner
South ingot plant
Alcoa, Tennessee