Casthouse upgrade in St. Augustine, Florida

(Feb. 5, 2004) Hydro Aluminum North America has once again demonstrated its commitment to expanding its primary-quality billet capability and to being a technology leader by approving USD 8.3 million to upgrade the company's casthouse in St. Augustine, Florida.

The upgrade at St. Augustine is part of a sustained investment program by the company. Following the upgrades to St. Augustine, Hydro will have invested nearly USD 100 million in new or revamped remelt capacity in North America since 1999.

“The investment at St. Augustine is testament to the market’s reaction to our state-of-the-art remelt program,” said Martin Carter, President of Hydro Aluminum North America.

“We are demonstrating that Hydro's advanced technology and processes produce primary-quality billet with high recycled aluminum content. The result is a product with both environmental benefits, and assured availability.”

COMMITMENT: Including the St. Augustine (pictured) project, Hydro will have invested nearly USD 100 million in new or revamped caapcity in North America since 1999.

The improvements at St. Augustine will increase both the productivity and the quality of the production process, nearly doubling St. Augustine’s capacity to 60,000 MT/year and making it the quality benchmark of Hydro Aluminum North America’s reprocessing network.

The upgrades will take place during the second quarter of 2004 and will include the installation of new casting technology, additional metal filtering equipment, and a new saw line.

The upgrades will allow St. Augustine to recycle higher volumes of aluminum, while still producing primary-quality aluminum billet for the marketplace. Following the upgrade, the St. Augustine facility will expand its supply to other extruders, including the nearby Hydro Aluminum Automotive Plant in Rockledge, Florida.

Hydro Aluminum North America operates the largest aluminum remelt network on the continent, with six state-of-the-art facilities producing over 400,000 tons of primary quality billet annually. Hydro is unique in utilizing proprietary technology to produce primary quality billet with a high recycled material content.

• Facts about Hydro Aluminum North America
  Hydro Aluminum North America is a leading extruder, fabricator and drawn tubing producer and the operator of the largest remelt network in North America. Headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the company provides extrusions, drawn tubing, finishing, fabrication, contract manufacturing, metal sourcing and primary-quality billet from 12 U.S. locations and one in Mexico.