Kaiser Aluminum Announces $19 Million Expansion at Jackson, Tenn. ...

Tag : Industrial Aluminum Extrusion
Kaiser Aluminum (NASDAQ:KALU) today announced that its Board ofDirectors has approved a $19 million expansion at its Tennalumfacility in Jackson, Tenn., to increase capacity and capabilitiesthrough the addition of an extrusion press, heat treat furnace,drawbench and other ancillary equipment.

The expansion will add capacity to meet anticipated future demandfor cold-finished rod, bar and related products. The Tennalumproject is expected to be completed and production-ready by the endof 2009.

"Tennalum is a world-class facility that exemplifies KaiserAluminum's Best In Class reputation and provides an excellentplatform for expansion," said Jack A. Hockema, president, chairmanand CEO of Kaiser Aluminum. "By investing in additional growth atthe facility, we'll continue to leverage our technical expertiseand a long, proven history as the preferred supplier to our servicecenter, aerospace and other customers with a wide range ofhigh-quality fabricated aluminum products."

Since 2005, Kaiser Aluminum has announced $263 million of totalinvestment in its organic growth initiatives, which include a $139million expansion of heat treat plate capacity and capabilities foraerospace applications and a $91 million program to significantlyimprove the capabilities and efficiencies of rod, bar and tubeoperations.

Kaiser Aluminum, headquartered in Foothill Ranch, Calif., is aleading producer of fabricated aluminum products, serving customersworldwide with highly-engineered solutions for aerospace andhigh-strength, general engineering, and custom automotive andindustrial applications. The company's North American facilitiesannually produce more than 500 million pounds of value-added sheet,plate, extrusions, forgings, rod, bar and tube products, adheringto traditions of quality, innovation and service that have been keycomponents of our culture since the company was founded in 1946.The company's stock is included in the Russell 2000(R) index. Formore information, please visit www.kaiseraluminum.com.

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Certain statements in this release relate to future events andexpectations and, as a result, constitute forward-lookingstatements involving known and unknown risks and uncertainties thatmay cause actual results, performance or achievements of thecompany to be different from those expressed or implied in theforward-looking statements. Important factors that could causeactual results to differ materially from those in theforward-looking statements include: (a) the effectiveness ofmanagement's strategies and decisions; (b) adverse changes in theanticipated future demand for cold-finished rod, bar and relatedproducts, (c) the company's ability to complete the contemplatedproject and other projects as planned and by the targetedcompletion dates, (d) adverse changes in economic or aluminumindustry conditions generally; (e) adverse changes in the marketsserved by the company, including the aerospace, defense, generalengineering, automotive, distribution and other markets; (f) thecompany's ability to leverage its technologies and the KaiserProduction System methodology; (g) developments in technology usedby the company, its competitors or its customers; (h) the company'sability to successfully significantly improve the capabilities andefficiencies of rod, bar and tube operations, and (i) the otherrisk factors summarized in the company's Form 10-K for the yearended December 31, 2007 and other reports filed with the Securitiesand Exchange Commission.