Hydro Aluminium News

Jan Arve Haugan has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kvaerner. This new engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company is being established through a demerger of Aker Solutions. Kvaerner will be separate and listed on the Oslo stock exchange, most likely in July this year. Jan Arve Haugan started his professional career in the Norwegian construction company F. Selmer (now part of Skanska), and in 1991 he joined the Norwegian industrial group Norsk Hydro as chief engineer for the Oseberg field development as a key task. Since then he has had leading positions in many of Hydro's oil and gas projects and operations.

Hydro Aluminium has entered into a long-term purchase agreement with the Slovenian aluminium producer Talum for foundry alloy casthouse products. Talum will supply Hydro with an average of 70,000 tonnes of foundry alloy products per year over the next seven years. This new supply contract comes in addition to the ongoing agreement under which Hydro annually purchases approximately 50,000 tonnes of extrusion ingot from Talum. The new purchase agreement will start 1 January 2004 and run through 2010. Hydro and Talum have been cooperating closely since 1987, including Hydro's supply of alumina for Talum's primary aluminium production.