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Kaiser lands major contract with Airbus

By John Stucke johnst@spokesman.com(509) 459-5419

Kaiser Aluminum has signed a new supply contract with Airbus that stands to boost production at the Trentwood rolling mill in Spokane Valley.

Though few details were disclosed, the deal follows Kaiser’s announcement last week of a $75 million capital investment project at Trentwood. The company will install machinery including a stretcher, furnaces, an inspection system and other equipment to produce heavy-gauge aluminum sheet.

In a press release, Kaiser CEO Jack Hockema said the expansion necessary to make the metal ordered under the new Airbus contract would be completed in 2008.

Hockema said aircraft manufacturing is on the rise, due partly to more travelers and companies replacing older planes with newer models.

The new equipment will enlarge what is already the company’s largest plant and one of the few factories in the country capable of producing the size, shape and quality of specialized aluminum necessary to make aircraft. The stretcher will be 250 feet long and weigh 3 1/2 million pounds. It will be shipped from Europe, put on rail to Spokane and delivered to the plant in pieces on 120-wheel trailers, according to Kaiser spokesman Geoff Mordock.

Kaiser executives anticipate the deal will significantly increase the amount of fabricated metal made at the Trentwood rolling mill, which currently employs about 600 people.

Currently, workers produce aluminum sheet with a maximum thickness of three to four inches.

The new equipment will produce sheet up to about 10 inches thick. The metal sheet will be shipped to companies and machined into parts for Airbus airplanes, said Dave Carlson, president of Steelworkers Local 338.

Kaiser is not yet disclosing the value or length of the contract or the tonnage.

Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, has been a buyer of Kaiser products for years. Last summer the companies announced a six-year deal for lighter gauge aluminum plate. Owned by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and BAE Systems, Airbus is the chief rival of Boeing Co.