Slovalco welcomes Prime Ministers
 EXPANDING: Slovalco put on stream on August 6 the last of its expansion project's 54 reduction cells. This was an addition to the 172 pots that were already in place. |
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(Oct. 30, 2003) The Slovakian company Slovalco, operated in close cooperation with Hydro Aluminium, was recently named the Company-of-the-Year in Slovakia. The Prime Minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik, will visit the plant on Friday, invited by the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Mikulas Dzurinda. Hydro Aluminium CEO Jon-Harald Nilsen will join them.
Slovalco is the result of more than 10 years of dedicated work aimed at creating a modern export company and solving environmental issues in central Slovakia. The aluminium company has been partially financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and its operations are based on Hydro Aluminium's electrolytic reduction technology and competence/operative experience from casthouse operations.
Slovalco is recognized as one of the most successful projects financed by EBRD.
Hydro Aluminium works closely with Slovalco, both commercially and technically. Sales of extrusion ingot and foundry alloys outside Slovakia are included as part of Hydro's marketing of aluminium casthouse products. Based on Hydro Aluminium's process technology and specifications, extrusion ingot from Slovalco is used to produce aluminium extrusions or drawn tubes and its foundry alloys, applications for the automotive industry.
"Slovalco is a very important part of our metal supplier system, as it enables us to deliver goods to customers particularly in Central and Southern Europe," says Hydro Aluminium president and CEO Jon-Harald Nilsen, who will also be taking part in the Prime Minister's official visit to Slovalco.
"We can supply customers with top quality extrusion ingot and foundry alloys quite easily from Slovakia. The recent expansion of the plant will contribute significantly to creating more value for Slovalco, as well as Hydro."
The recent expansion at Slovalco has increased its total potroom capacity to almost 160,000 metric tons per year as of 2004. Casthouse capacity, including the remelting of aluminium scrap, has also increased to about 180,000 mt per year.
In 2002, Slovalco's electrolytic reduction facilities produced about 112,000 mt of primary metal, its casthouse about 95,000 mt of extrusion ingot and about 47,000 mt of foundry alloys.
Slovalco is ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001-certified and was also certified last year according to ISO/TS 16949 which, among other things, qualifies it as a supplier to the automotive industry. The company was audited by Det norske Veritas, another sign of close cooperation between Slovalco and Norwegian trade and industry.
Hydro Aluminium's business volume of aluminium casthouse products totals more than three million metric tons, of which approximately 1.4 million mt were produced at Hydro's own or partially owned reduction facilities and about 900,000 mt from the remelting and recycling of aluminium scrap.
The rest is supplied either by partners, such as Slovalco, or through commercial agreements. This also illustrates the metal supplier system that is a significant part of Hydro Aluminium's business strategy.
Important end-user markets for Hydro Aluminium products are the automotive, building, packaging and lithographic industries.
Hydro has worked closely with Slovalco, located at Ziar nad Hronom in Central Slovakia, since the 1980s. It was in 1994 that Hydro acquired equity interests in the company, when EBRD entered the scene for the refinancing of the Slovakian aluminium company.
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