Kaiser Earnings Expected March 7 Company Had Delayed Reports To Account For Financial Details Of Gramercy Blast

(From For the Record, March 1, 2000): Story wrong: Kaiser Aluminum Corp. owns and operates nine plants in the United States, including two in Spokane. A story on Tuesday stated otherwise.

After more than a month’s delay, Kaiser Aluminum Corp. has announced that it will release it’s 1999 year-end and fourth quarter financial results March 7.

The company postponed its reports in January, citing a need to wait for information about insurance claims relating to an explosion at its refinery in Gramercy, La., last summer.

In addition to that plant, Kaiser operates four others in the United States, including two in Spokane.

At the time of the postponement a company spokesman said it wasn’t a question of insurance coverage, but more a question of whether some of the proceeds would get booked in the 1999 period or in 2000. But on Monday, spokesman Scott Lamb said he couldn’t offer any detail on the results.

“On March 7th, we expect we will be in a position to say more about the Gramercy project,” he said.

Since January, Kaiser’s stock has dropped by more than $3 a share, to a low of $5.62 on Monday. Likewise the stock of Maxxam Inc., the company that holds about 63 percent of Kaiser’s stock, has dropped about 10 points, to $29.50.

Kaiser’s revenues count for the majority of Maxxam’s income.

Share prices for Kaiser’s competitors have also gone down during the past month.

Kaiser is currently involved in a labor dispute with the Steelworkers union. About 2,100 hourly workers in Spokane have been off the job since September 1998.