In May 2007 Alcoa made a $27 billion hostile takeover bid for Alcan, a former subsidiary, aiming to unite the two companies and form the world's largest aluminum producer. The takeover bid was withdrawn after Alcan announced a friendly takeover by Rio Tinto in July 2007.
Among Alcoa's other businesses are fastening systems, building products (Kawneer) and Howmet Castings. The sale of the packaging unit was announced on December 21, 2007 and closed in the first quarter of 2008.
History
In 1886, Charles Martin Hall, a graduate of Ohio's Oberlin College, discovered the process of smelting aluminum, almost simultaneously with Paul Héroult in France. He realized that by passing an electrical current through a bath of cryolite and aluminum oxide, the then semi-rare metal aluminum remained as a byproduct. This discovery, now called the Hall-Héroult process, is still the only process used to make aluminum worldwide.
Probably fewer than ten sites in the United States and Europe produced any aluminum at the time. In 1887, Hall made an agreement to try his process at the Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company plant in Lockport, New York but it was not used and Hall left after one year. On Thanksgiving Day 1888, with the help of Alfred E. Hunt, he started the Pittsburgh Reduction Company with an experimental smelting plant on Smallman Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1891, the company went into production in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. In 1895 a third site opened at Niagara Falls. By about 1903, after a settlement with Hall's former employer, and while its patents were in force, the company was the only legal supplier of aluminum in the US.
"The Aluminum Company of America"—became the firm's new name in 1907. The acronym "Alcoa" was coined in 1910, given as a name to two of the locales where major corporate facilities were located (although one of these has since been changed), and in 1999 was adopted as the official corporate name.
In 1938, the Justice Department charged Alcoa with illegal monopolization, and demanded that the company be dissolved. The case of United States v. Alcoa was settled 6 years later.
Alcoa established an 8% stake in China's state-run aluminum industry and has formed a strategic alliance with Aluminium Corporation of China (Chalco), China's largest aluminum producer, at its Pingguo facility. Alcoa sold this stake on September 12, 2007.
Alcoa has also acquired two facilities in Russia, at Samara and Belaya Kalitva. Alcoa recently launched an offer to purchase the remaining 18% of the Belaya Kalitva plant from minority shareholders, giving it complete ownership in the facility.
In 2004, Alcoa's specialty chemicals division was sold to Rhône Group, who then changed the name to Almatis, Inc..
In 2005, Alcoa began construction in Iceland on Alcoa Fjarðaál, a state-of-the-art aluminum smelter and the company's first greenfield smelter in more than 20 years, albeit under heavy criticism by local and international NGOs related to a controversial dam project exclusively dedicated to supplying electricity to this smelter. Also, Alcoa has completed or is undergoing primary aluminum expansion projects in Brazil, Jamaica, and Pinjarra, Western Australia.
In 2006, Alcoa relocated its top executives from its headquarters in Pittsburgh to New York City. Although the company's principal office is located in New York City, the company's operational headquarters are still located at its Corporate Center in Pittsburgh. Alcoa employs approximately 2,000 people at its Corporate Center in Pittsburgh and 60 at its principal office in New York.
Alcoa was named one of the top three most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
On 8 May 2008, Klaus Kleinfeld was appointed new CEO of ALCOA substituting Alain Belda. On April 23, 2010 Alcoa’s Board of Directors elected Mr. Kleinfeld to the office of Chairman, following Mr. Belda’s planned retirement.
Environmental record
The Political Economy Research Institute ranks Alcoa 15th among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States. The ranking is based on the quantity (13 million pounds in 2005) and toxicity of the emissions. In April 2003, Alcoa Inc. agreed to spend an estimated $330 million to install a new coal-fired power plant with state-of-the-art pollution controls to eliminate the vast majority of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from the power plant at Alcoa's aluminum production facility in Rockdale, Texas. The settlement was the ninth case the Bush administration pursued to bring the coal-fired power plant industry into full compliance with the Clean Air Act. Alcoa was unlawfully operating at the Rockdale facility since it overhauled the Rockdale power plant without installing necessary pollution controls and without first obtaining proper permits required by "New Source Review" program of the Clean Air Act. In February 1999, Alcoa cleaned soils and sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and lead at the York Oil federal Superfund site in Moira, New York in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency. The site, a former waste oil recycling storage facility, accepted waste oil from a number of companies, including Alcoa. The facility was improperly managed and operated and, as a result, soils on the York Oil Property and nearby wetlands sediments and groundwater were contaminated. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Superfund Unilateral Order on December 31, 1998 requiring Alcoa to excavate, treat and dispose of the contaminated wetlands sediments,.
Alcoa in Ghana,
Alcoa's affiliate in Ghana, the Volta Aluminum Company, was completely closed between May 2003 and early 2006, due to problems with its electricity supply,.
Alcoa in Iceland,
By the middle of September over 50% of the Alcoa Fjarðaál smelter construction in Iceland has been finished. The total workforce on site is 1,750 people, of which 80% are of Polish origin. It was expected to be on line by 2007. Alcoa and the government of Iceland have signed an agreement on instigating a thorough feasibility study for a new 250,000 tpy (Tons Per Year) smelter in Bakki by Húsavík in Northern Iceland. In order to power Alcoa's new smelters in Iceland, tracts of wilderness are being flooded to provide hydroelectric energy. Alcoa does not own the kárahnjúkar powerplant,.
Alcoa in the United Kingdom,
Kitts Green, Birmingham, England
Established shortly before World War II, the facility at Kitts Green, Birmingham has produced many aluminium products. Throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s the plant became focused on flat-rolled products for the aerospace industry. As of 2007 the plant employed approx 530 employees.
Swansea, South Wales
On November 21, 2006, Alcoa announced that it planned to close the Waunarlwydd works in Swansea, with the loss of 298 jobs. Production ceased at the Swansea plant on January 27, 2007 and it has since been sold by Alcoa.
Alcoa in Australia,
Alcoa operates bauxite mines, alumina refineries and aluminum smelters through Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals, which is a joint venture between Alumina Limited and Alcoa. Alcoa operates two bauxite mines in Western Australia - the Huntly and Willowdale mines. Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals owns and operates three alumina refineries in Western Australia: Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup. The Wagerup expasion plans have been put on hold due to the Global Financial Crisis. Two aluminum smelters are also operated in the state of Victoria at Portland and Point Henry. Alcoa Australia Rolled Products a 100% Alcoa Inc. venture, operates two rolling mills. The Point Henry Rolling mill in Victoria and the Yennora rolling mill in N.S.W. have a combined rolling capacity of approx. 200,000 tonnes. Alcoa uses 12,600 GW or 28% of Victoria's electricity annually.
Alcoa's Western Australian Wagerup plant has a troubled history in the context of claims that pollution from the plant has had an adverse impact on the health of members of the adjacent local community,.
Alcoa in the United States,
Alcoa created a plant just outside of Maryville, TN in Blount County, Tennessee, which was the biggest provider of aluminum in the South. The area needed housing for workers, so Alcoa built many houses. The area eventually turned into a city and the wife of Alcoa hydro engineer James Rickey came up with the name Alcoa as an acronym for Aluminum Company of America. The name Alcoa was, therefore, created specifically to name the town Alcoa, Tennessee, which was founded in 1919. Over time, the name Alcoa was unofficially used to reference the company as well. The Aluminum Company of America officially changed its name to Alcoa, Inc. in 1999.
Alcoa's Massena West plant is the longest operating smelter in the United States, having been in continuous operation since 1902. The Reynolds Aluminum Plant became Massena East when the companies merged in 2000.
Alcoa had a smelting plant in Badin, North Carolina from 1917 to 2007 and continues a hydroelectric power operation there.
Alcoa maintains several Research and Development Centers in the United States. The largest one, Alcoa Technical Center, is located East of its Pittsburgh Headquarters at Alcoa Center, PA. The "Tech Center" is as large as some college campuses, has its own Zip Code and maintains an extensive intellectual and physical resource for innovation. Alcoa's extensive safety program continuously improves safety at the Tech Center. After Paul O'Neill became Alcoa CEO in 1987, Alcoa became one of the safest companies in the world, despite the aluminum industry's inherent risks.
The Physical plant of the Tech Center is situated in a rural area and has managed to cultivate a large wooded area which acts as a nature preserve, sheltering deer and other wildlife. It is not uncommon to see Deer and other wildlife freely circulating through the environs of the Tech Center at all hours of the day.
Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals
Alcoa owns and operates the majority of its alumina refineries through its 60% share of Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals. Strategically Alcoa would like to own more of this upstream activity
Alcoa primary aluminum smelters
Alcoa has interests in 25 primary aluminum smelters in 8 countries.
(source:wikipedia)
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