BUSINESSLINE

JOM, Oct 2007

Alcoa: Alcoa (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) have signed an agreement through which Alcoa will supply UAC with advanced metallic materials, modern structural concepts, and manufacturing technologies for UAC future generation civil aircraft. The agreement includes joint technology cooperation on next generation UAC aircraft. Alcoa has also announced an agreement to sell it two remaining U.S. soft-alloy extrusion facilities in Warren. Ohio, and Plant City. Florida, to Golden Aluminum. Alcoa's Tipton, Georgia soft-alloy extrusion facility is also closing.

Alliant Techsystems: Alliant Techsystems (Minneapolis, Minnesota) has entered into a three-way manufacturing supply agreement with Hexcel Corporation and USEC Inc. for the supply of carbon fiber and carbon fiber products for the manufacture of rotor tubes for USEC's American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) in Piketon, Ohio. The ACP will enrich urani urn for commercial nuclear power reactors. Hexcel will furnish the carbon fiber material. and Alliant will manufacture the rotor tubes.

Ausmelt Limited: Ausmelt Limited (Dandenong. Australia) and Votorantim Metais Zinco S.A. have signed an agreement for a lead smelter to be constructed in Juiz de Fora in Brazil. Design work will start immediately, with a capacity to produce around 75,000 t/y of lead bullion from a combination of lead concentrates and lead scrap, mainly from recycled batteries. Ausmelt also signed an equipment supply contract with a Russian nonferrous metals client as the final contractual step in a new lead project in the Urals area.

Dynamet Technology: Dynamel Technology (Burlington, Massachusetts) has received a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The two-year program, "Novel Titanium-Tantalum Materials for Improved Biomedical Implants and Medical Devices," will continue an NSF Phase 1 initial study.

Infrared Technologies: Infrared Technologies (Franklin Lakes, New Jersey) is a new company formed by Kiekhosrow Irani. The company offers consulting services to industries-such as research, steel, plastics, paper, heat treating, semiconductors, aerospace automotive, sulfur recover furnace-where temperature is a critical factor in the manufacturing process and where selection of the right instrument is crucial to achieving pre cise temperature measurements.

Novelis: Novelis (Detroit. Michigan) has been selected by General Motors to supply aluminum sheet for the hood of the 2008 Cadillac CTS. Novelis will supply aluminum for the CTS from its manufacturing plants in Oswego. New York, and Kingston, Ontario.

ThyssenKrupp: ThyssenKrupp Stainless AG (Duisburg. Germany) is investing approxmately 30 million euros in the expansion of production at the Essen. Germany, site of ThyssenKrupp Titanium. A further vacuum arc furnace was installed to significantly increase melting capacity for titanium ingots, and an innovative electron beam furnace is being installed in a dedicated new on-site shop. ThyssenKrupp Services AG (Dusseldorf Germany) is also investing approximately 18 million euros in the construction of two nw warehouse, logistics, and processing centers in Russia to be used by ThyssenKrupp Materials (Russia), a Moscow-based materials services company founded in 2004.

TriQuint Semiconductor: TriQuint Semiconductor (Hillsboro, Oregon) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Peak Devices of Boulder, Colorado. TriQuint manufactures wireless products, while Peak Devices is a privately held, fabless semiconductor company that focuses on RF discrete transistor technology.

United States Steel Corporation: United States Steel Corporation (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) has entered into an agreement to acquire steel producer Stelco (Hamilton, Ontario Canada). U.S. Steel expects this acquisition to strengthen its position as a premier supplier of flat-rolled steel products to the North American market. The slabs produced at Stelco's Lake Erie and Hamilton Works (Hamilton, Ontario) will expand U.S. Steel's semi-finished steel supply chain capabilities to support finishing facilities for both flatrolled and tubular products.