Date:02/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/11/02/stories/2006110200371700.htm

Hindalco ties up with US company

Our Bureau

To have 70% equity participation in joint venture

Mumbai , Nov. 1

The Aditya Birla Group company Hindalco and the US-based Almex Inc have entered into a joint venture for manufacturing high-strength aluminium alloys for applications in aerospace and surface transportation industries.

Almex, headquartered in Los Angeles, is a technology supplier and equipment manufacturing company. The joint venture is to be named `Hindalco - Almex Aerospace Ltd'.

The Indian company will have 70 per cent equity participation in the joint venture. The company has not given further details of the equity base of the joint venture company.

"We are aggressively ramping up our portfolio of value added products. Getting into high strength alloys is a part of our strategic growth initiative. About 80 per cent of our products are value added; we expect to scale this up, going forward," said a company press release quoting Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla.

A high proportion of the new company's output will be marketed overseas. The joint venture envisages a capital outlay of Rs 155 crore at a production level of 46,000 tonnes. The location of the manufacturing facility is under finalisation.

The volume is likely to be reached in phases over three to four years. Production is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2006, the release said.