Lausanne, 19 May 2000:
Hydro Aluminium Wuxi a new Hydro Aluminium Extrusion unit close to Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China shall start operating in third quarter of this year. Hydro Aluminium Extrusion’s corporation, Norsk Hydro signed a Joint Venture Agreement to establish its first majority owned company in China.
The new company will supply the automotive tube market in China and the rest of Asia with Hydro’s high quality Heat Transfer aluminium tubes. The partner is presently the leading domestic Chinese supplier of drawn tubes, and the new venture will develop these products to meet international standards. Hydro will introduce its state of the art products to serve its global customers established in China and other Asian markets.
Hydro Aluminium Wuxi is 70% owned by Hydro Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Hydro’s Join Venture Company with Singapore’s investment company Temasek Holdings. The rest is owned by a private enterprise owned by Mr. Zhou Fuhai. The plant is located in Wuxi in Jiangsu province near Shanghai.
Hydro Aluminum Extrusion is the world’s second largest extrusion manufacturer, and clear market leader in aluminum extrusions in Europe. It operates approximately 70 businesses throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States and has joint ventures in Asia and Africa. Hydro units sold close to 500,000 tones of aluminum extrusions in 1999. Hydro Aluminum Extrusion is the world market leader for aluminium tubing heat transfer products to the automotive industry.
Norsk Hydro ASA, a Norwegian based international corporation is one of the world’s leading energy and industrial companies and has a presence in more than 100 countries. Its core businesses are oil and energy, light metals and plant nutrition. Hydro is one of 18 companies, world wide, that are included in the Dow Jones sustainability group index. Its world wide headquarters are located in Oslo, Norway. Norsk Hydro’s headquarters of Hydro Aluminum Extrusion are located in Lausanne, Switzerland.