Kaiser Aluminum Expands in Tulsa

[dsjeffries]

quote:
Kaiser Aluminum to Expand Tulsa Plant
Tulsa Business Staff
2/13/2008

California-based Kaiser Aluminum Corporation has announced that its Board of Directors has approved $14 million in additional investments to enhance and expand extrusion capabilities at its Tulsa and Sherman, Texas, facilities.

The additional investments increase the capital expenditures of Kaiser Aluminum's organic growth program to $244 million.

The investments expand Kaiser Select capabilities at Tulsa to produce automotive extrusions. Teaming with the company's London, Ontario, extrusion facility, Tulsa will provide additional capacity to meet growing customer commitments for automotive applications. Demand for automotive applications has been driven by fuel price pressure and new regulations, such as stricter CAFE standards now mandating a 40 percent improvement in fleet-wide fuel efficiency by 2020.

Kaiser Aluminum is a producer of fabricated aluminum products, serving customers worldwide with highly-engineered solutions for aerospace and high-strength, general engineering, and automotive and custom industrial applications. The company's 11 plants in North America annually produce more than 500 million pounds of value-added sheet, plate, extrusions, forgings, rod, bar and tube products, adhering to traditions of quality, innovation and service that have been key components of our culture since the company was founded in 1946.

Does anyone know what kind of jobs they have here in Tulsa?? How much do they pay?  The article is weak on details--are they hiring additional workers or just expanding their services?

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by DScott28604

quote:
Kaiser Aluminum to Expand Tulsa Plant
Tulsa Business Staff
2/13/2008

California-based Kaiser Aluminum Corporation has announced that its Board of Directors has approved $14 million in additional investments to enhance and expand extrusion capabilities at its Tulsa and Sherman, Texas, facilities.

The additional investments increase the capital expenditures of Kaiser Aluminum's organic growth program to $244 million.

The investments expand Kaiser Select capabilities at Tulsa to produce automotive extrusions. Teaming with the company's London, Ontario, extrusion facility, Tulsa will provide additional capacity to meet growing customer commitments for automotive applications. Demand for automotive applications has been driven by fuel price pressure and new regulations, such as stricter CAFE standards now mandating a 40 percent improvement in fleet-wide fuel efficiency by 2020.

Kaiser Aluminum is a producer of fabricated aluminum products, serving customers worldwide with highly-engineered solutions for aerospace and high-strength, general engineering, and automotive and custom industrial applications. The company's 11 plants in North America annually produce more than 500 million pounds of value-added sheet, plate, extrusions, forgings, rod, bar and tube products, adhering to traditions of quality, innovation and service that have been key components of our culture since the company was founded in 1946.

Does anyone know what kind of jobs they have here in Tulsa?? How much do they pay?  The article is weak on details--are they hiring additional workers or just expanding their services?

well, I know the London Ontario facility makes aluminum frames for Honda Gold Wing motorcycles.  Not sure what the Tulsa outfit will be doing.

[cannon_fodder]

my guess is that a $4mil investment at a plant like that only represents a small handful of new jobs - maybe 5 or 10.  It seems likely that the new machines will probably replace older machines and/or serve to guarantee existing jobs more than create new ones.

$4,000,000.00 buys a lot less machine tool than one might think.  And they don't take many people to operate.  On the flip side, that's why machine operators make decent money.

[dsjeffries]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

my guess is that a $4mil investment at a plant like that only represents a small handful of new jobs - maybe 5 or 10.  It seems likely that the new machines will probably replace older machines and/or serve to guarantee existing jobs more than create new ones.

$4,000,000.00 buys a lot less machine tool than one might think.  And they don't take many people to operate.  On the flip side, that's why machine operators make decent money.

So at least these jobs aren't just minimum-wage, telecom jobs...  We definitely don't need more of those.

And I believe the investment between the two plants in Tulsa and the one in Texas is $14,000,000, not $4,000,000.  So if it were divided equally, it would be at least $7m investment in Tulsa.