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Alcoa
*** Shopping-Tip: Alcoa
:''This article is about Alcoa, the aluminum manufacturing company. For other uses, see
Alcoa (disambiguation).''
{{Infobox Company |
company_name = Alcoa |
company_logo =
Image:AlcoaLogo.png 125px|Alcoa logo |
company_type =
Public company Public|
foundation = 1888|
location =
New York, New York, USA|
key_people =
Alain J. P. Belda, Chairman/CEO|
industry = Aerospace, Automotive, Commercial Transportation, Building and Construction, Packaging and Consumer,
Aluminium and
Alumina|
products = Primary aluminium, fabricated aluminium and alumina, flexible packaging, closures, precision castings, fastening systems, vinyl siding, and electrical distribution systems for vehicles. Alcoa makes and markets consumer brands including Reynolds Wrap and Baco household foil and wraps.|
num_employees = 131,000|
revenue = $26.2 Billion (2005)|
homepage = [http://www.alcoa.com/ www.alcoa.com]
}}
'''Alcoa''' ({{nyse|AA}}) is the world’s leading producer of
alumina, primary and fabricated
aluminium, with operations in 43 countries. (It is followed in this by a former subsidiary,
Alcan, the second-leading producer.) In addition to aluminium products, Alcoa also makes and markets
consumer products consumer brands including
Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil foil and plastic wrap, Baco household wraps, and Alcoa wheels. Among Alcoa’s other businesses are
vinyl siding, closures, fastening systems, precision
castings, and electrical distribution systems for vehicles.
History
In
1886,
Charles Martin Hall, a graduate of
Ohio’s
Oberlin College, discovered the process of
smelting aluminium, almost simultaneously with
Paul Héroult in France. He realized that by passing an
electrical current through a bath of
cryolite and
aluminium oxide, the then semi-rare metal aluminium remained as a
byproduct. This discovery, now called the
Hall-Héroult process, is still used 117 years later by Alcoa to produce aluminium. With the help of financial backers, Hall started the
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which changed its name to '''Aluminum Company of America''' 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.
Until
1950, Alcoa was concerned with its domestic market, while its Canadian subsidiary Aluminum Limited (Alcan) took care of the international markets. From
1937 to
1957 it was under sticter than normal governmental supervsion, pending a final verdict in the ''U.S. vs Alcoa''
antitrust case. Alcoa's
monopoly was effectively ended by the disposal of Defense Corporation Plants after WWII by the War Assets Administration. This enabled Reynolds Metals Company and Kaiser Chemicals to become fully integrated producers of primary aluminum. They were soon joined by Anaconda Aluminum Company, a subsidiary of the
copper-industry giant. In
1958 Harvey Machine Tools Company began primary aluminum production, marking the end of Alcoa's monopoly over the process which had led to its domination American market.
The
judge in ''U.S. vs Alcoa'' remarked, "It was not inevitable that it should always anticipate increases in the demand for ingot and be prepared to supply them. Nothing compelled it to keep doubling and redoubling its capacity before others entered the field. It insists that it never excluded competitors; but we can think of no more effective exclusion than progressively to embrace each new opportunity as it opened, and to face every newcomer with new capacity already geared into a great organization, having the advantage of experience, trade connections and the elite of personnel." Some
economists have criticized the judgement of monopoly against Alcoa. For example,
Alan Greenspan said: "ALCOA is being condemned for being too successful, too efficient, and too good a competitor. Whatever damage the antitrust laws may have done to our economy, whatever distortions of the structure of the nation's capital they may have created, these are less disastrous than the fact that the effective purpose, the hidden intent, and the actual practice of the antitrust laws in the United States have led to the condemnation of the productive and efficient members of our society because they are productive and efficient." Greenspan grants that Alcoa was a monopoly, but maintains that it was not a
coercive monopoly and, hence, should not have been subject to anti-trust action. ([http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/06-12-98.html ''Antitrust'' by Alan Greenspan])
Alcoa has established an 8% stake in
Economy of China China’s
state-run aluminium industry and has formed a
strategic alliance with
Aluminium Corporation of China (Chalco), China’s largest aluminum producer, at its
Pingguo facility.
Alcoa has also acquired two facilities in the
Russian Federation, at
Samara, Russia 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
2005, Alcoa began construction in
Economy of Iceland Iceland on Alcoa Fjardaal, a state-of-the-art aluminium smelter and the company’s first
greenfield smelter in more than 20 years. Alcoa also signed a
memorandum of understanding with the government of the Republic of
Trinidad and Tobago to build a low-emissions aluminium smelter and related facilities there, and is working with the government of
Ghana on the development of the aluminum industry in that country. Furthermore, Alcoa has completed or is undergoing primary aluminium expansion projects in
Economy of Brazil Brazil,
Economy of Jamaica Jamaica, and
Pinjarra, Western Australia. It has changed its home office from Pittsburgh to New York.
Alcoa was named one of the top three most
sustainable corporations in the world at the
World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland.
Board of directors
Since
2001, the
chairman of the board chairman and
chief executive officer of Alcoa has been
Alain J. P. Belda. From
1987 to
1999,
Paul O'Neill held the posts of chairman and CEO, and would later become
Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of
George W. Bush.
James Alexander Forrest was the chairman of Alcoa Australia from
1970 to
1978.
Other members of the
board of directors:
*
Kathryn S. Fuller
*
Carlos Ghosn
*
Joseph T. Gorman
*
Judith M. Gueron
*
Klaus Kleinfeld
*
James W. Owens
*
Henry B. Schacht
*
Franklin A. Thomas
*
Ernesto Zedillo
Category:Aluminium companies
Category:Companies based in New York
Category:Dow Jones Industrial Average
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