Operations at Alcoa's Ferndale, Wash., plant
Source: www.alcoa.com

Alcoa Signs Long-Term Contract with Bonneville Power Admin.

Alcoa is one the country's largest industrial consumers of electrical power. The company needs long-term, low-priced electrical service agreements in order to be profitable. Alcoa recently concluded such an agreement with Bonneville Power Administration. A company press release says, "Alcoa, today, announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for a power contract to supply its Alcoa Intalco Works (Ferndale, Washington) aluminum smelter through 2028. The MOU provides the framework for a contract which would begin in October 2011. It would provide up to 240MW of direct power sales, enough to operate the facility at 50 percent capacity, contingent upon BPA acquiring additional power to augment the NW power system, within certain threshold price levels."

* The Active member from Alcoa is James Winter.

Pfizer Recognized for Greenhouse Gas Reductions

Investors and product consumers increasingly expect the companies they deal with to demonstrate their respect for the environment. Drug maker Pfizer is getting ahead of this game by cutting the greenhouse gas emissions of its facilities. The company's Web site says, "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honored Pfizer, Inc., today in recognition of the company's award-winning Energy and Climate Change Program, which reduced total greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent per million dollars of revenue from 2000 to 2007. These reductions, which exceeded Pfizer's original goal of 35 percent, were achieved in partnership with the EPA's Climate Leaders Program. Climate Leaders is a public-private initiative in which the EPA works with companies to develop comprehensive climate change strategies."

* The Active members from Pfizer are Mark Eichkorn and Sean Nugent.

Kimberly-Clark Takes EPA SmartWay Environmental Excellence Award

Consumer goods companies sometimes struggle to balance supply-chain costs and speed of delivery. Kimberly-Clark seems to have struck the appropriate balance and substantially reduced its carbon dioxide emissions in the bargain. The company's press release reports, "For the second year in a row, Kimberly-Clark Corporation received an Environmental Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SmartWay(sm) Transportation Partnership for its leadership in conserving energy and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Kimberly-Clark's 2007 SmartWay action plan included investing in a strategy to locate distribution centers near large cities, implementing a new transportation management system and collaborating with internal and external supply chain partners. As a result, Kimberly-Clark reduced its usage of diesel fuel by 1.7 million gallons and decreased carbon dioxide emissions by 113,728 tons, which is the equivalent of removing over 15,000 cars from the road."

* The Active members from Kimberly-Clark are Len Anderson and Greg Saylor.

"If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business."

--Ray Kroc,
founder of McDonald's Corp.
Source: http://alquemie.smartbrief.com/

Construction under way at Nucor's Hertford County, NC, mill
Source: http://www.dtreadsteel.com/
subdir/projects/nucor.htm

Nucor to Expand Hertford County, NC, Mill

Even though the economy is lukewarm and stock markets are volatile, large industrial companies must start major facility investments during tough times so that they will be ready to produce when business is good. Steel maker Nucor has begun one such investment at its facility near Charlotte, N.C. A press release says, "Nucor Corporation announced today that it plans to install a plate heat treating facility at its plate mill in Hertford County, North Carolina. The heat treating line will have an estimated annual capacity of 120,000 tons and will have the ability to produce heat treated plate from 3/16" through 2" thick. Total cost of the project is expected to be approximately $110 million."

* The Active member from Nucor is Robin Austin.

U.S. Steel Announces Expansion of Joint-Venture Facility

United States Steel and Worthington Industries have operated a joint-venture mill in Jackson, Michigan, for years. Now, they plan to expand it. A U.S. Steel communiqué says, "United States Steel Corporation and Worthington Industries, Inc., announced today that they have signed an agreement to expand and modify their current Worthington Specialty Processing joint venture located in Jackson, Mich. Under the terms of the agreement, U. S. Steel would contribute ProCoil Company LLC, its steel processing subsidiary in Canton, Mich., and Worthington Industries would contribute Worthington Steel Taylor, its steel processing subsidiary in Taylor, Mich. to the expanded joint venture. Both companies anticipate closing the transaction in early October, subject to customary closing conditions. Worthington Specialty Processing is currently a 50-50 joint venture. Under the new agreement, Worthington Industries will own 51 percent and U. S. Steel will own 49 percent of the joint venture. Worthington Industries will continue to be the managing partner."

* The Active members from U.S. Steel are Stephen Bilan, Dennis Jones, George Manos and Douglas Zywan.

"The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B."

--James Yorke,
mathematics and physics professor
Source: http://alquemie.smartbrief.com/

Aerial view of missile launch facilities on Wallops Island, Virginia
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4312/ch2.htm

Northrop Grumman Starts Construction on Wallops Island Facility

Northrop Grumman has broken ground for a building that will be the first in Wallops Research Park, an initiative whose goal is attracting high-technology jobs to the area. On this project, the company's Web site says, "The one-story, 15,000-square foot building can house up to 55 Northrop Grumman employees supporting the U.S. Navy's Surface Combat Systems Center and NASA. Northrop Grumman provides the Navy with systems engineering, planning, installation, operations and maintenance services for the Ship Self Defense System (SSDS) and the AEGIS Combat System. Both SSDS and AEGIS are advanced, shipboard command and control systems using computers and sensors to track and destroy enemy missiles. For NASA, the company designs, manufactures, tests, and provides launch support for the Sounding Rockets program, which uses low-cost rockets to launch sensors and instrumentation into suborbital space for exo-atmospheric measurements and experimentation."

* The Active members from Northrop Grumman are Michael Brendes, Gene Canale and Joseph Jones.

Owens-Illinois to Expand Auckland, NZ, Bottle Plant

The glass-production company Owens-Illinois is in the process of evaluating its global operations and reorganizing the extent and locations of its manufacturing facilities. As part of this process, the company recently announced plans to expand its glass container manufacturing plant in Auckland. The announcement says, "The company will invest approximately NZ $80 million ($60 million USD) to expand its Auckland, New Zealand, plant, by adding an additional furnace and two glass container forming machines. The Auckland expansion, which is expected to be in full operation by the first quarter of 2010, will increase the annual output of glass containers from the plant by 90,000 tons to help support the country's continuously growing demand for glass packaging. The expansion will create about 35 new jobs and provide the plant with the ability to make 2.2 million bottles per day once it is fully operational."

* The Active member from Owens-Illinois is Frank Butler.

Caterpillar's Marine Power Systems headquarters in Hamburg Source: www.mak-global.com

Caterpillar Opens New Space in its Hamburg, Germany, Division Headquarters

* The Active member from Caterpillar is Marty Collier.

Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda
Source: www.med.umn.edu/peds/global/uganda.html

Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Funds New AIDS Center in Kampala, Uganda

Through the joint efforts of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mulago Hospital and the Government of Uganda, a new, state-of-the-art AIDS treatment center for children was recently opened in Kampala, Uganda. Bristol-Myers Web site says, "Funding for the building was provided by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. Operational support will come from PEPFAR and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control."

* The Active members from Bristol-Myers Squibb are James Harbaugh and Jack Chapman.

A Sitel call center in Germany
Source: www.sitel.com

Sitel Opens Customer Service Office in Berlin

Sitel operates call-in customer-service operations around the world. It recently opened a large facility in Berlin, Germany. The company's Web site reports, "The site is scheduled to open on October 1, 2008, and is expected to bring up to 1,000 new jobs to the Berlin community over the next three years. Sitel selected Berlin for the region's excellent communication infrastructure, multilingual workforce and tremendous opportunity for growth. Sitel currently employs more than 3,000 agents in Germany at seven centers across Krefeld, Düsseldorf, Dessau and Wittenberg."

* The Active member from Sitel is Ann Harts.

* With each project, we provide the name(s) of the IAMC Active member(s) from the company involved. This is for information purposes. We are not indicating or suggesting that the member was involved in the project.