Hydro Aluminum Consolidates Missouri Facilities

Hydro Aluminum?s Extrusion Americas (Linthicum, MD) unit plans to consolidate its two Missouri facilities, relocating its Cassville operations into its Monett plant. The plants are located approximately 20 miles apart in southwest Missouri.

Rhonda Wright, vice president and general manager of Hydro?s Central Region stated, ?Consolidating the Cassville operations into Monett will improve our responsiveness to customers and increase our operating efficiency. The fabrication services that have been centered at Cassville are an increasingly important part of our future, and our customers will benefit from having all our operations ¯ casting, extrusion, paint and fabrication ¯ at one site.?

The consolidation is made possible by efficiency increases in Monett?s extrusion operations. ?With the improvements we?ve been able to reorganize the plant, improve material flow and create the space needed to accommodate our fabrication operations,? added Wright.

The physical consolidation of the facilities is expected to begin in December and be completed near the end of first quarter 2010. Final staffing requirements for the consolidated operations are yet to be determined, but it is expected that several of the current Cassville employees will be offered employment in the expanded Monett operations.

Hydro acquired the Monett and Cassville operations in 2000. Their operations include a casthouse that converts recycled aluminum into extrusion billet, extrusion, painting and fabrication. The two facilities currently employ approximately 165 people.

Extrusion Americas is a unit of Norsk Hydro, a global supplier of aluminum and aluminum products. Based in Norway, the company employs 23,000 people in 40 countries and has activities on all continents. In North America, Hydro provides aluminum solutions including supply sourcing, extrusion, finishing, and fabrication of components, as well as engineering and contract manufacturing services, for a variety of industries.

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www.hydro.com/northamerica