Alcoa Fastening Systems To Manufacture in China

Alcoa has announced that its Alcoa Fastening Systems business will create two new 50,000-square-foot manufacturing sites in the Suzhou Industrial Park, 100 kilometers from Shanghai, to support rapidly growing commercial aviation and railway/rail car production and sub-assembly in that market.

One plant will be dedicated to the production of select aerospace fastening systems; while the other will produce fasteners for Alcoa's rail car/transportation customers. The selection of the specific products to be produced is being carefully considered and coordinated with the company's major customers around the world.

The new facilities will incorporate the latest in available manufacturing technology plus Alcoa Business System lean methodologies.

Production at the railway/rail car fastener facility is slated to begin operation by the end of this year. The aerospace fasteners plant is expected to start production by October 2006. Minimum employment at the two facilities is expected to total 250 people by 2007.

This announcement follows the opening earlier this year of Alcoa Fastening Systems' full-service logistics center in Shanghai.

Alcoa Fastening Systems, a business unit of Alcoa, is a leading worldwide designer and manufacturer of fastening systems, specialty fasteners, components, and installation systems for aerospace and commercial product assembly. Headquartered in Torrance, California, the company has 6,000 employees and manufactures at 26 locations in 7 countries.