Alcoa Achieves One-Year Milestone with Honda.

CLEVELAND -- Alcoa Forged and Cast Products announced today a one-year milestone in contributing to the success and sleekness of Honda's most popular model - the Accord. A year ago, Honda and Nissen Chemitec America put into service the first high-volume production tool made from Alcoa's newest mold alloy, QC-10[R]. Honda is using this production tool on its highest selling platform with excellent results.

With the nameplate QC-10, Alcoa's proprietary aluminum mold alloy is exceptionally durable and proved to Honda and Nissen's automotive tooling engineers that there is a better alternative to P20 steel for production tooling. The new mold demonstrated a 20 percent decrease in cycle time, producing 180 additional parts per day compared to the steel tool. Today, more than 300,000 components have been produced from the QC-10 production tool.

"We invested in Alcoa's QC-10 and quickly realized a number of significant benefits, including continued reduction in the cycle time required to mold each part, added durability and a reduction in the cost of the mold," said John Engle, Honda staff engineer. "An ideal outcome, which companies seldom see, is reduced costs, improved quality, and increased speed. The QC-10 has satisfied all three of these key objectives for Honda."

According to Victoria Kale, marketing manager, Alcoa Forged and Cast Products, QC-10 has proven in this case that aluminum can stand up in a production environment and perform extremely well. "We've seen tremendous success with Honda and believe the value and benefits of QC-10 go beyond this particular part or even automobiles," said Kale. "We look forward to its potential in more plastics manufacturing applications."

About Alcoa

Alcoa (NYSE: AA) is the world's leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina facilities, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components, Alcoa also markets Alcoa[R] wheels, fastening systems, and precision castings. The company has 116,000 employees in 44 countries and has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Alcoa Forged and Cast Products is a division of Alcoa Power and Propulsion, a major business unit of Alcoa. Alcoa Power and Propulsion is a global leader in airfoil and structural investment castings, forged structural parts, and forged aircraft wheels. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com