Hydro Extruded Solutions

Last updated
Hydro Extruded Solutions (business area within Hydro ASA)
Industry Aluminium
Founded1963
Headquarters Oslo, Norway
Key people
Egil Hogna (EVP)
Products building products
heat transfer tubing
profiles extrusion
aluminium
Number of employees
22,400 (Hydro Extruded Solutions)
Website www.hydro.com/en-US

Hydro Extruded Solutions is a manufacturer of extruded aluminium profiles. Norsk Hydro announced in July 2017 that it would take full ownership of the 50/50 joint venture Sapa AS by buying the remaining 50 percent stake from conglomerate Orkla Group. The transaction was completed and Sapa was brought into Hydro ASA on October 2, 2017. [1] According to Bloomberg, Sapa "falsified thousands of certifications for aluminum parts over 19 years for hundreds of customers, including NASA." [2] In Extruded Solutions, Hydro has the largest global aluminium extrusion-based operation in the world, counting 100 production sites in more than 40 countries, and has 22,400 employees. [3] Hydro's head office is located in Oslo, Norway.

Contents

History

Skandinaviska Aluminiumprofiler AB (Scandinavian Aluminum Profiles) set up its first extrusion plant in Vetlanda in 1963, with sales of aluminum profiles from the Swedish plant beginning in 1967. The Norwegian corporation Orkla Group acquired Sapa in 2005 and delisted the company from the Stockholm Stock Exchange. [4]

Sapa and Alcoa engaged in a joint venture in 2007, making it one of the world's largest extrusion companies. [5] One year later, in December 2008, Alcoa and Orkla executed an asset swap transaction. In this transaction, Orkla took over Alcoa's soft aluminium alloy extrusion business, which was then organized under the Sapa name, and became the sole owner of Sapa

In 2009 the company acquired 10 North American extrusion plants that belonged to Indalex. At the time of the purchase, Indalex was under bankruptcy protection. The acquisition covered six plants in the United States and four in Canada. [6]

In October 2012, Orkla and the Norwegian company Norsk Hydro announced that they had agreed to combine the aluminium extrusion businesses of Sapa and Hydro into a new 50/50 joint venture, which would keep the Sapa name. After having received approvals from all relevant authorities, the joint venture transaction was closed and a new company, Sapa AS, was established on September 1, 2013. Hydro ASA acquired Sapa in October 2017, when Sapa was renamed Hydro Extruded Solutions and organized as a new business area. [7]

In 2019 a NASA investigation of two Taurus rocket launch failures, which resulted in the loss of 700 million dollars worth of payload, determined that the root cause was the use of defective parts manufactured and fraudulently certified by Sapa Profiles, Inc. (SPI). [8] [9]

Organization

Internally, Hydro Extruded Solutions has four business units. Two of them, organized geographically, are within Extrusions. The other two are Precision Tubing and Building Systems. In fact, one of the aluminium building systems brands has retained the former company name, Sapa. In total, Hydro Extruded Solutions operates some 100 production sites in more than 40 countries. The business area has about 22,400 employees across the world. [10]

Extrusions

Extrusions is a producer of extruded aluminium profiles. Sites also handle cutting, bending, CNC processing, hydroforming, fusion welding, friction stir welding, electromagnetic pulse forming, electromagnetic pulse welding [11] anodizing and painting. Extrusions is organized internally with two business units, covering North America and Europe. Its extrusion activities in Asia and South America are organized within the Precision Tubing unit.

Building Systems

Building Systems develops and sells aluminium-based window, door and facade products. This includes the development of energy-saving concepts. The business unit has a portfolio of global brands – Sapa, Technal and Wicona – as well as various regional brands.

Precision Tubing

Precision Tubing develops and markets aluminium tubing and tubing primarily for heat transfer applications in the automotive industry and in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry. The business unit also is responsible for Hydro's general extrusion operations in Asia and South America.

Sustainability

Hydro's move toward a circular economy involves an emphasis on recycling aluminium. Aluminium can be recycled and reused over and over without any reduction in quality, consuming only 5 percent of the energy that was required in the primary aluminium production.

In 2017, more than half of the aluminium used in Hydro Extruded Solutions' production stemmed from internal scrap recycling and billets of remelted aluminium provided by external suppliers, according to Sapa's. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norsk Hydro</span> Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company

Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state owns 34.3% of the company through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. A further 6.5% is owned by Folketrygdfond, which administers the Government Pension Fund of Norway. Norsk Hydro employs approximately 35,000 people. Hilde Merete Aasheim has been the CEO since May, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcoa</span> American materials company

Alcoa Corporation is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina combined, through its active and growing participation in all major aspects of the industry: technology, mining, refining, smelting, fabricating, and recycling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extrusion</span> Process of pushing material through a die to create long symmetrical-shaped objects

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friction stir welding</span>

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process that uses a non-consumable tool to join two facing workpieces without melting the workpiece material. Heat is generated by friction between the rotating tool and the workpiece material, which leads to a softened region near the FSW tool. While the tool is traversed along the joint line, it mechanically intermixes the two pieces of metal, and forges the hot and softened metal by the mechanical pressure, which is applied by the tool, much like joining clay, or dough. It is primarily used on wrought or extruded aluminium and particularly for structures which need very high weld strength. FSW is capable of joining aluminium alloys, copper alloys, titanium alloys, mild steel, stainless steel and magnesium alloys. More recently, it was successfully used in welding of polymers. In addition, joining of dissimilar metals, such as aluminium to magnesium alloys, has been recently achieved by FSW. Application of FSW can be found in modern shipbuilding, trains, and aerospace applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orkla ASA</span> Norwegian consumer good conglomerate

Orkla ASA is a Norwegian conglomerate operating in the Nordic region, Eastern Europe, Asia and the US. At present, Orkla operates in the branded consumer goods, aluminium solutions and financial investment sectors. Orkla ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and its head office is in Oslo, Norway. As of 31 December 2021, Orkla had 21,423 employees. The Group's turnover in 2021 totalled NOK 50.4 billion.

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Egil Olav Hogna is a Norwegian engineer and business executive. On 1 September 2015 he was appointed new CEO of Sapa Group, the world's largest aluminium processor with NOK 53 billion in turnover and 22,400 employees in 40 countries. Following Hydro's acquisition of Sapa in 2017, Sapa was integrated as Hydro's largest business area. Hogna led the Extruded Solutions business area from 2017 to 2020. On 1 December 2020, he took over as CEO of Norconsult. Hogna has a master's degree in Industrial Economics from NTNU in Trondheim. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a management education from Harvard Business School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alumex</span> Sri Lankan manufacturing company

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References

  1. "Norway's Hydro in $3.2 billion deal for aluminum firm Sapa". Reuters. 2017-07-10.
  2. "NASA Says Metals Fraud Caused $700 Million Satellite Failure". Bloomberg. 2019-05-01.
  3. "Norsk Hydro agrees $3.2bn deal for aluminium producer Sapa". Financial Times. 2017-07-10.
  4. "Sapa opens new plant in South France". Aluminium Insider. 2017-06-21.
  5. "Orkla, Alcoa seal Sapa aluminium parts venture". Reuters. 2007-06-08.
  6. "Sapa to strengthen North American Business acquire Indalex". Orkla.com. 2009-06-17.
  7. "Norway: Orkla and Hydro announce Sapa joint venture". Aluminium Insider. 2012-10-16.
  8. "NASA Investigation Uncovers Cause of Two Science Mission Launch Failures". NASA. 2019-04-30.
  9. "Aluminum Manufacturer Allegedly Knew It Was Selling Faulty Parts To NASA, Resulting In Two Failed Launches". iflscience.com. 2019-05-02.
  10. https://www.sapagroup.com/contentassets/b0a41f16c64646399740413278eb863c/sapa-annual-report-2016.pdf?showInContext=1323 [ bare URL PDF ]
  11. "Top five aluminium extrusion companies in the world". AlCircle.com. 2017-01-21.
  12. Sustainability Report of 2016