Products from Qatalum, the largest aluminium plant ever built in one phase, makes it possible to serve new customers in South America as well as offering primary foundry alloys to a growing number of US customers.

Mr Kjetil Ebbesberg head of Hydro’s Metal Markets business area which is responsible for marketing metal from Qatalum said that “We are now positioning Hydro for further growth in North and South America.”

Hydro operates two dedicated aluminium remelting plants in the US in Henderson, Kentucky and Commerce, Texas, near Dallas. As these plants produce only extrusion ingot, customers in North America have not been able to purchase primary foundry alloys from Hydro.

Mr Kjetil Ebbesberg said that expanding the product scope in the Americas is a logical next step for Hydro. As a supplier of aluminium products, we need to position Hydro for the very promising growth prospects we see in certain South American markets. With our integrated, global system we can draw on emerging market opportunities such as these.

The increasing volumes of aluminium produced at Qatalum 50;50 JV between Hydro and Qatar Petroleum Company will now bring primary foundry alloys to this market. The first PFA shipments from Qatalum arrived in the US in June.

Mr Matt Aboud marketing director and sales manager in the US is leading the introduction of PFA to the US market while Mr Gianni Valsecchi will bring valuable experience in selling PFA to Hydro’s European customers.

Mr Valsecchi will also be responsible for helping bring extrusion ingot and primary foundry alloys from Qatalum and Hydro’s aluminium plant in Kurri Kurri, Australia. Initially, entering Brazil and Mexico will be our primary focus.

(Sourced from www.4-traders.com)