Early start-up of new remelt facility in Commerce, Texas

(Nov. 22, 2002) Production started Nov. 15 at the newly built Hydro remelt facility in Commerce, Texas - two weeks ahead of schedule. The USD 37 million investment is part of long-range strategy to increase Hydro's capacity in the North American market.

The new aluminum plant will have a capacity of 90,000 metric tons of primary quality aluminum from scrap and will utilize Hydro's proven state-of-the-art technology. Hydro chose to build the plant in Commerce to best serve Southwest US aluminum market demand.

Customers, which are primarily from the transportation, building and construction sectors in Texas, will find a dedicated in-house sales and customer support team at Commerce. Establishing a local sales organization reflects the new regional sales structure being introduced throughout the organization - to better respond to customer needs. Local sales representatives are now closer to individual customers and can provide day-to-day operational decision-making.

The plant in Commerce is designed to produce primary quality aluminum billet from scrap using just 5 percent of the energy consumed in typical primary aluminum production. Besides being energy efficient, the plant also enables customers to recycle their own scrap in ways that optimize their own production processes. This concept is proven by Hydro's network of remelt plants in Europe and at the new facility at Henderson, Kentucky.

The Henderson recycling plant, which started up in November 2000, marked Hydro's first equity investment in metal production at an aluminum facility in North America. The Commerce plant marks the second.

While building the Commerce plant, Hydro Aluminum North America used experience from Henderson. Several members of the project team at Commerce were involved with construction and operations at Henderson. The Commerce facility is also based on the same technology as Henderson.

Ramp up at the Commerce remelter is expected in 20 weeks - with just over 40 people operating the plant. Up to 30-40 trucks will deliver scrap for remelting daily.

Hydro Aluminum North America runs one of the largest remelt networks in the United States - with a total remelt capacity of more than 400,000 metric tonnes. In addition to Commerce and Henderson, Hydro has remelt capacity at plants in Monett, Missouri, Ellenville, New York, Phoenix, Arizona and St. Augustine, Florida.

Hydro is a global remelt technology leader. Today, one out of three tonnes of Hydro aluminium sold has been remelted.

Hydro Aluminum North America is part of Hydro Aluminium, a leading aluminium company in Europe, and one of the top three integrated companies worldwide. Norsk Hydro is a leading Norway-based industrial group, its core business areas are Hydro Oil & Energy, Hydro Agri and Hydro Aluminium. The group has more than 50,000 employees in nearly 60 countries. In 2001, operating revenues totaled more than EUR 20 billion.