Alcoa inks $1.4-billion supply contract

FARNBOROUGH, UK— Alcoa has signed US$1.4 billion in new multi-year supply agreements to supply Airbus with aerospace aluminum sheet, plate and hard alloy extruded products and aluminum lithium alloys.

In a release, Alcoa says these materials will be used across virtually all Airbus commercial programs.

The deal includes:

• Lower wing skins on the A320
• Aluminum lithium applications on the A350 and A380
• Extruded lower wing stringers for the A380
• Wing skins and fuselage panels for the A380
• Structural plate for the A350

Alcoa’s hard alloy extruded products—including rod, drawn tubing and extruded shapes for wing stringers and floor structures—will be supplied from the company’s plants in Lafayette, Ind., Baltimore, Md., and Hannover, Germany.

Flat rolled products will be supplied from the company’s plants in Davenport, Iowa; Kitts Green, U.K.; and Belaya Kalitva in Russia.

A new greenfield plant in Lafayette, as well as facilities in Kitts Green and at the Alcoa Technical Center in Pennsylvania, will cast aluminum lithium to support the global Alcoa aerospace supply chain.

Alcoa’s aerospace business comprises four units with operations across the world totaling approximately $3.4 billion in annual revenues. Alcoa employs approximately 61,000 people in 31 countries across the world.