LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2002

Hydro Aluminium has reached a final agreement to acquire Technal group, a major European player within aluminium building systems, head quartered in Toulouse, France.

This finalizes the deal announced on October 30th 2001.

In 2001 the Technal group had a turnover of EURO 275 million, approximately 10 per cent up from 2000. Hydro paid approximately EURO 73 million for the equity of the Technal group and assumed at the same time the EURO 38,3 million debt of Technal.

The Technal group designs, manufactures and markets a broad range of building systems which are used in the fabrication of a variety of products such as doors, windows, facades and conservatories. The Technal group has presence throughout Western Europe including France, Spain, Portugal and the UK as well as export and licensees in a number of countries.

With this acquisition Hydro Building Systems will be the world leader in building systems based on aluminium extrusions, with over 3200 employees and operations in more than 20 countries.

Hydro Building Systems is part of Hydro Aluminium Extrusion, one of the seven business sectors of Hydro Aluminium.

Norsk Hydro ASA, the Norwegian Oil and Energy, Light Metals and Agri group, earlier in January announced an agreement to buy all shares of VAW aluminium AG, the German aluminium company. The acquisition, subject to clearance by the European Union competition authorities, will make Hydro Aluminium one of the world's top-tier light metal companies, with a leading position in Europe.Total sales in Hydro Aluminium activities after the acquisition will be approximately 10 billion Euro, (NOK 80 billion), and the merged company will employ more than 30,000 persons.

"With the acquisition of the Technal group we will not only be by far the biggest player within aluminium building systems in France and a leading one in the rest of Europe, but also have a strong position for further growth, especially outside Europe," says Jan Fredrik Meling, Executive Vice President of Hydro Aluminium Extrusion and head of Hydro Building Systems, "the Technal brand with its excellent reputation ideally complements our WICONA and DOMAL brand range as well as our geographical spread. It is our intention to stick to our decentralised business concept and run the Technal brand in parallel to our existing Wicona and Domal ones."

Patrick A. Tanguy, Chief Executive Officer of the Technal group, stated," We are pleased to become a part of Hydro Building Systems. We believe that combining the strengths of both companies will accelerate the development of global presence of Hydro Building Systems."

NEW DELHI, India, - India's leading private aluminum producer, Hindalco Ltd., will double the production capacity of its aluminum foil plant by December 1999 in an effort to capture the growing domestic foil market.

Hindalco's foil plant at Silvasa in Western India has an installed capacity of 5,000 tonnes per year and began operation in February.

Hindalco president Askaran Agarwala said the company will invest an additional $10 million to increase the foil plant's capacity to 10,000 tonnes per year.

He said Hindalco will sell 70 percent of the output in the domestic market, while 30 percent is made for exports.

Hindalco executives said the company is continuing to pursue the acquisition of Hyderabad-based primary aluminum producer Pennar Aluminium Co., which has asset value worth $75 million (AMM, May 11).

Hindalco, headquartered at Mumbai, is India's largest private producer of aluminum with installed capacity to manufacture 210,000 tonnes per annum of aluminum and 350,000 tonnes per annum of alumina. Hindalco also produces value-added aluminum sheets, extrusions and rods.

The company is planning investments of about $475 million dollars to increase capacities of alumina and aluminium plants and value-added units.

Norsk Hydro ASA, the Norwegian Oil and Energy, Aluminium and Agri group, has as of today completed the acquisition of the German aluminium company, VAW aluminium AG.

The closing in Dusseldorf today comes just a little over two months after Hydro entered into the agreement with the German utility and industry group, E.ON, to acquire VAW. The completion of the transaction is to be followed by a rapid integration of Hydro and VAW, which will create Hydro Aluminium - an innovative global force in the aluminium industry.

"VAW and Hydro represent an excellent strategic fit. The combination of our strengths in rolled products and extrusions enable us to offer customers a broader product range and move closer to aluminium end users. We will also be able to increase our recycling activities. The combination open significant value creation opportunities," stated Jon-Harald Nilsen, Chief Executive Officer of Hydro Aluminium and Executive Vice President in the Norsk Hydro Group.

Hydro Aluminium will be one of the top three global aluminium suppliers, and market leader in important market segments. Hydro Aluminium will have a total business volume within primary aluminium cast house products of approximately 2.8 million tons. The combined group will have strong positions in markets for rolled and extruded products, and will be a global leader in aluminium applications for the building and automotive industries.

Hydro will be the leading aluminium company in Europe and have significant positions in North America and Asia/Pacific.

Integration planning in advance of the closing has prepared the ground for a rapid integration. Top management in Hydro Aluminium has been identified. Business sector managements will be appointed during April and the combined company will be fully operating as one from July 2002.

The acquisition will be funded through drawing on existing cash funds. VAW aluminium AG will be consolidated into Hydro's accounts as of the closing date.

Certain statements in this press release are or may constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not in the nature of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements and may contain identifying words such as "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "expects" and similar expressions. These forward looking statements are based on Hydro's current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the company and the industries in which it engages in business. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. For a detailed description of factors that could cause Hydro's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements, please refer to its annual report on Form 20-F for the year-ended December 31, 2000 and subsequent filings on Form 6-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Five companies to provide $4.3 billion of aluminum By BOB REGAN

NEW YORK -- Boeing Co.'s Commercial Airplane Group Monday named five aluminum companies that will provide $4.3 billion worth of flat-rolled aluminum and extruded aluminum products it expects it will need for commercial aircraft production over the next 10 years.

The Seattle-headquartered aircraft/aerospace giant in July selected Thyssen Inc. North America as its exclusive distributor of flat-rolled aluminum and certain small and intermediate-size extrusions. The 10-year contract, seen posing far-reaching implications for the existing metals distributor networks serving Boeing, prompted Thyssen to form a new division, TMX Aerospace, to administer the Boeing contract, valued at $300 million over the 10-year period

Asked how the five aluminum companies-Aluminum Co. of America, Pittsburgh; Kaiser Aluminum Corp., Houston; Century Aluminum Co., Monterey, Calif.; Universal Alloys Co., Canton, Ga.; and Hoogovens Aluminium Walzprodukte GmbH, Koblemz-were selected, a Boeing spokeswoman said there was an open bidding procedure and the choices were based on prices and such other criteria as business plan alignment, location, warehousing and other factors. At least two companies- Alcoa and Kaiser-had been selected earlier

Boeing said Monday that its strategy will be to buy its aluminum directly from the mills and then ship it through its single-source distributor to its external component suppliers and its internal shops. Boeing's previous aluminum procurement strategy involved itself, a system of 500-plus aerostructures suppliers and other smaller suppliers dealing with seven aluminum mills, 14 aluminum extruders and more than 50 distributors.

Boeing said its new system is designed to "eliminate speculative demand and "ensure a continuous supply of raw materials to Boeing internal operations and external suppliers at the lowest possible cost."

Boeing said Monday the new system will get under way soon, with aluminum deliveries under the new regime scheduled before the end of the year.

NEW YORK -- Ale an Aluminium Ltd. once again opted to hold its postings for primary aluminum ingot and extrusion billet unchanged through September after ingot prices held steady on the hedge and dealer markets during August.

The Montreal-based integrated international aluminum producer left its postings at 68 cents a pound for ingot and 78 cents a pound for alloy 6063 extrusion billet- levels selected for both July and August. Richmond, Va.,based Reynolds Metals Co., which has been putting more emphasis on the ingot sector after selling off much of its mill products and fabricating base over the past year or so, reportedly held its September tags unchanged at 69 cents a pound for unalloyed ingot and 79 cents for 6063 extrusion billet.

The London Metal Exchange cash aluminum price, which forms the basis for most of the world's aluminum ingot pricing and much of North American producer pricing for aluminum can stock, common alloy sheet, soft alloy extrusions and some other mill products, averaged 59.5 cents a pound in August, not much changed from July's 59.4 cents or June's 59.3 cents.

Premiums applied to producer metal sold to dealers, Midwest delivery basis, have centered on 4.5 cents a pound over late spring and thus far this summer. On this basis and with the LME cash price finishing Friday at 60.63 cents, he merchant price started the new week at 65 cents to 65.25 cents a pound, 3 to 4 cents under Alcan's September posting.

Held in check by rising imports, U.S. aluminum industry shipments of primary and secondary ingot in the first half of 1998 were virtually unchanged from the same 1997 period at 1,321,827 tonnes, according to the latest Aluminum Association and U.S. Department of Commerce tallies.

Imports jumped 234,330 tonnes, or 20.9 percent, to 1,354,850 tonnes, topping the domestic industry tally by more than 33,000 tonnes. U.S. aluminum industry purchases from Russia are running at a record clip this year. Imports from Australia also are higher, while metal brought in from Canada was down in the first half of this year.

The overall market for building and construction aluminum continued to recover this year--despite some still-lagging regional pockets--as both mill producers and downstream fabricators enjoyed 10 percent to more than 15 percent growth in demand compared with last year.

Even so, gyrating aluminum prices, spurred by worldwide aluminum production overcapacity and hefty Commonwealth of Independent States aluminum exports, have prompted some major mills to announce cutbacks in the past year:

* Reynolds Metals Co., Richmond, Va., said it would downsize its McCook, Ill., rolling mill, a move that affects, among other products, common alloys for the construction markets.

* Alumax Inc., Norcross, Ga., said it would end aluminum rolling operations in Joliet, Ill., and Riverside, Calif., which produce common alloy sheet for the construction and appliance markets.

* Alcan Aluminum Ltd., Montreal, plans to sell or shut down its building products network in the United States, which makes aluminum, vinyl and steel items. It later disclosed plans to sell two aluminum extrusion facilities to Cressona Aluminum Co., Cressona, Pa.

* AmeriMark Inc., Raleigh, N.C., said it would close its Gnadenhutten, Ohio, plant due to the "long, continuous decline in consumer acceptance" of aluminum siding.

Does this shakeout mean the survivors have clear sailing?

"I don't think anybody in the aluminum business today would say we're having a windfall because of McCook's plight," said Joe Byers, vice president of sales and marketing for Barmet Aluminum Corp., Akron, Ohio. Even though the cutbacks have undoubtedly altered the U.S. supply picture, Byers observed in late June, "we live in a global economy and we're seeing imports we didn't see six months ago."

With the former Soviet Union exporting such mainstay flat-rolled products as 5052 alloy coils, he explained, the pressure will remain on U.S. mills to keep their own production costs as low as possible.

Meanwhile, a cross section of construction-related aluminum companies report their business has strengthened considerably since the slump of 1990-91.

J.G. Braun Co., a distributor based in Skokie, Ill., reported a 10-percent improvement in sales in 1993 following a slow 1992 and said it is optimistic about the likelihood of an even bigger increase this year.

Dan Sullivan, sales manager for the distributor of angles, channels, tubing and hand railing components for both the residential and commercial construction markets, said the market "seems to be escalating this year, so there could be the chance of a 15-percent or even 20-percent increase." But he emphasized that 1994's ultimate strength could depend on recovery in regions such as California and parts of the East where the construction market is lagging the country as a whole.

New England "is still slow as far as commercial construction is concerned," said John Duran, director of marketing for Leed/Himmel Industries Inc., Hamden, Conn., which extrudes shapes and also buys large shapes and mill products for its fabricated products that are sold for both construction and industrial applications. But New York and New Jersey appear somewhat stronger, he said.

Duran pointed out that the public works market--which includes construction of schools and government buildings--is accounting for a disproportionately higher share of business in New England, presumably due to the decline in commercial business.

At the F.W. Dodge division of McGraw-Hill Inc., New York, which tracks the building and construction market, the forecast this year is for a 9-percent rise in overall construction compared with a 6-percent improvement last year. This general upturn, though, masks uneven progress among various categories. A Dodge analyst pointed out that residential, public works and institutional construction is increasing from levels of "relative strength." But office, hotel and warehouse commercial construction has just begun to rise after languishing close to 30-year lows.

Austrian aluminum company Austria Metall AG (Amag) posted an 11.7-percent increase in 1999 earnings despite a 6-percent decline in turnover to 556.6 million euros ($520.2 million) due to low aluminum prices in the first half of the year.

Pretax earnings rose to 33.4 million euros ($31.2 million) from 29.9. million euros in 1998. While all units operated at good capacity, German subsidiary Aluminium Unna AG suffered noticeably from internal structural problems and was divested in a staff buyout, Amag said.

The extrusions plant and rolling mill at Amag's main operation in Ranshofen countered the pressure on margins by improved output and a better production mix, Amag said, noting that the rolling mill lifted its output by some 5,000 tonnes to 95,000 tonnes.

Amag said that it expected volumes, at the extrusions plant to decline slightly this year as it had reduced its capacity shifts in favor of flexibility. Due to a restructuring of internal operations, which won't affect the bottom line until next year, the company expects a rather modest operating profit this year.

Amag added that it expected rolling mill sales to remain at a high level, with an expansion of its market position in the United States and the Far East.

TOKYO -- Japanese output of aluminum mill products declined in July for the first time in 15 months--slipping 0.1 percent. From the same month last year to 211,145 tonnes.

July production of rolled products fell 1.4 percent to 117,134 tonnes--the first year-to-year decline in 16 months--due to a 20-percent decline in exports despite high domestic demand in such sectors as foil, can stock, printing, fins, automotive and wholesale/retail, according to the Japan Aluminium Association. Production of aluminum foil, spurred by increased demand from capacitor manufacturers, climbed 2.6 percent in July--the 16th consecutive monthly increase--to 12,479 tonnes.

July production of extrusions increased 1.5 percent to 94,011 tonnes thanks to continuing strong demand from the semiconductor manufacturing equipment, office automation equipment and automobile industries.

The association said that confirmed figures for the first six months of this year put total output of aluminum mill products at 1,216,880 tonnes, up 3.5 percent from the same 1999 period--the first year-to-year gain in three years.

The six-month total comprised an all-time high of 682,810 tonnes of rolled products, up 2.5 percent in the first increase in two years, and 534,070 tonnes of extruded products, up 4.8 percent, in the first rise in three years. Production of aluminum foil climbed 2.4 percent in the first six months of the year to 73,392 tonnes.

While each aircraft manufacturer is taking its own approach, many--both in the commercial and the military sectors--are taking a hard look at their buying practices and making changes to guarantee just-in-time deliveries and other efficiencies.

Perhaps the most pronounced changes have come in the commercial aerospace sector, where the Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group of Boeing Co. has consolidated its aluminum flat-roll and extrusions supplier base and integrated purchasing of these products. This accounts for much of their materials purchases, as aluminum comprises about 80 percent of their aircraft, under a single service provider--the TMX Aerospace Division of Thyssen Inc. North America, Detroit. TMX is also integrating Boeing's purchases of titanium. Likewise their major competitor, Airbus Industrie of Toulouse, France, is converting itself from a consortium of four European companies into one integrated entity that will eventually, once its metamorphosis is complete next year, utilize centralized metals purchasing.While many original equipment manufacturers in aerospace and elsewhere have taken moves to consolidate their supplier base and gain greater control of their metals purchasing and other requirements, Boeing's move, according to Jeffrey Phelan, a program manager for the aerospace giant's supply management and procurement division, said, is the first time that it has been done to this extent.

What Boeing Commercial is trying to do, said Sid Rose, senior raw materials manager, at a recent National Association of Aluminum Distributors meeting, is "rightsize" its supply base in an effort to come up with a fully integrated supply chain management system that best utilizes aluminum distributors and mills. This, he said, has reduced Boeing's purchases of aluminum flat roll and extrusions by just buying what the company truly needs.

Prior to this move, which was initiated about 2 1/2 years ago, Boeing's purchasing method was very inefficient, Rose said. "Every division operated independently with each having its own supply chain and its own customers," he said. "We didn't do anything together."

Pushed by the company's new thinking that followed Boeing's merger with McDonnell Douglas, this move, which has been termed as the Millennium Contract, was the brain child of the company's strategic sourcing team that was charged with identifying and implementing best practices across the company. Under this new program, Boeing Commercial now contracts with five aluminum producers--Alcoa Inc., Pittsburgh; Pechiney Rolled Products LLC, Ravenswood, W.Va.; Hoogovens Aluminium Walzprodukte GmbH, Koblenz, Germany; Kaiser Aluminum Corp., Houston; and Universal Alloys Co., Canton, Ga.--and three titanium producers--Titanium Metals Corp., Denver; RTI International Metals Inc., Niles, Ohio; and VSMPA of Russia. This is a 50-percent drop from the number of aluminum and titanium mills it used to buy from, and using just TMX represents an 80 percent decline in metal distributors.

However, TMX's role, Rose explained, is somewhat different than that of previous metal service centers. "They also take the time to call on our customers to determine what they are buying, forecast demand and try to provide us with all that data so we can determine what orders need to be placed."

This program, Phelan said, is still only about 80 percent implemented and will not be fully in place for another two years, which was the planned time frame to allow for previous long-term contracts to expire.

Thus far, he said, it has been working well, although there were some growing pains, especially during the beginning of 2000, when a lot of suppliers came on-stream at one time. But since then, he said, many of the kinks have been ironed out, as Boeing and its parts suppliers as well as the mills and TMX get used to the new way of doing business. "Purchasing is more streamlined, forecasting is more accurate, the mills produce what we need when we need it. It has definitely consolidated the supply chain, taking out a lot of the waste," he said.

Whether Boeing will extend this concept to other products in its commercial airplane group, such as aluminum rod, bar and tubing, or to its military airplane unit, is still uncertain, Phelan said, stating that it is possible if this program continues to be successful. "It is a company-wide effort to make efficiency gains, but the decision to expand it lies with our strategic sourcing team."

As for Airbus, as of 1967 the European commercial aerospace manufacturer had been a consortium of four leading companies, each of which were responsible for specific components of the aircraft, a spokesman explained. BAE Systems Plc of England has been responsible for the wings; Construcciones Aeronauticas SA (Casa) of Spain has been responsible for the tail sections; Aerospatiale Matra SA of France was responsible for the cockpit and wing center sections; and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (Dasa) of Germany was responsible for the fuselage. The planes were assembled by Aerospatiale and Dasa. Each company, which had other operations not involved in Airbus, was responsible for purchasing the metals and other materials for their own components.

NEW YORK -- Early peeks into the U.S. aluminum industry's new business and shipment tallies in the current quarter underscore Alcan Aluminium Ltd.'s recent assessment that fourth-quarter business levels and results were falling below general expectations and Alcoa Inc.'s earlier warnings about its third-and fourth-quarter performance.

The Washington-based Aluminum Associations public tally of November bookings and October shipments is out yet, but the picture painted by early December reports of the trade groups clients on Wall Street and elsewhere showed sharp declines in key market areas.

Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Global Research & Economics group said in a report dated Dec. 14 that the industry's bookings of aluminum sheet, extrusions and other mill products "remained weak during November" and shipment volume remained weak in October.

The company's aluminum industry analyst, Dan Roling, who a week earlier had determined "aluminum fundamentals remain healthy and supportive of higher prices once the soft economic landing is confirmed," said the long downtrend in bookings "appears to have bottomed out (but) a clear trend is not discernable."

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. analyst Wayne Atwell said in a report dated Dec. 13 that "aluminum fundamentals are deteriorating in the U.S., with aluminum orders off seven of the last eight months and November down 11 percent vs. the year earlier."

Atwell also said the U.S. aluminum industry's mill product shipments "are down six of the last seven months and declined 4.6 percent in October vs. the year earlier."

CORUS, the Anglo-Dutch steel group, cast further doubt yesterday on whether it will proceed with the pounds 2.7bn takeover of the Brazilian steel maker CSN, saying the deal may be subject to delay or renegotiation.

The move came as Corus confirmed that it is selling its downstream aluminium operations to Pechiney of France for EUR750m (pounds 472m). The proceeds will be used to cut Corus' debt further and will take borrowings down to about pounds 700m compared with pounds 1.7bn at the end of June.

The CSN deal has been thrown into doubt by the near certainty that a left-wing candidate will win Sunday's Brazilian elections. Although Luiz Inacio de Silva, or "Lula" as he is known, the leader of Brazil's Workers' Party, has pledged to maintain the country's financial discipline, the prospect of his election has unnerved investors and hit the value of the Brazilian currency.

Corus, run by its chief executive Tony Pedder, signed a non- binding heads of agreement with CSN in July and had planned to reach a definitive agreement in mid-November, paving the way for shareholders to vote on the all-share takeover in the first quarter of next year.

However, a spokesman for Corus said yesterday: "There could be a delay in the CSN deal due to the uncertainty politically, economically and in the financial markets. The fact that the agreement is non-binding means we can revisit the terms of the deal."

Under the agreement announced in July, Corus would pay an 87 per cent premium for control of CSN. Corus shareholders would emerge with 62.4 per cent of the combined group.

The Pechiney deal is subject to regulatory approval in Europe and the US. The Corus spokesman said: "We would hope to have as quick a passage as possible although you can never be sure."

One of the areas of concern for competition authorities may be the increased market share the deal would give Pechiney in the European aerospace market. There are only a handful of companies in Europe making aluminium fuselage and wing parts for commercial aircraft and Pechiney could emerge with a dominant position.

The deal covers Corus' rolled products and extrusions businesses, which employ 4,700 people and have rolling mills in Germany, Belgium and Canada and extrusion plants in Germany, Belgium and China.

TOKYO -- Japanese production and shipments of secondary aluminum in November increased on a year-to-year basis for the 13th consecutive month, according to the Japan Aluminium Alloy Refiners Association.

November production came to 78,872 tonnes, up 3.2 percent from the same month of 1999 while shipments increased 3.6 percent to 80,257 tonnes. Shipments for the die-casting industry increased 5.3 percent to 39,730 tonnes while those for the casting segment were 21,202 tonnes, down 0.3 percent. Shipments for rolling rose 0.8 percent to 7,496 tonnes, and those for extrusions rose 19 percent to 6,865 tonnes.