Comalco Sells Off Mill Assets
The Age
Wednesday December 20, 1995
Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and the Japanese metals giant Kobe Steel confirmed yesterday that they had teamed up to buy Comalco's rolled products operations.
The sale price was not disclosed but is believed to have been about $90 million. Comalco expects to book a loss of about $10 million on the deal, which remains subject to regulatory approvals.
The key approvals required are a clearence from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board.
The main asset is Comalco's Yennora rolling mill in New South Wales. The mill shares the aluminium cansheet market with the Point Henry rolling mill in Victoria, owned by Alcoa's 60 per cent-owned Australian offshoot, Alcoa of Australia.
The two mills produce about 60,000 tonnes of cansheet annually - well below their installed capacity of about 160,000 tonnes a year. In addition, they face stiff import competition and competition from glass and plastic.
Comalco said yesterday the sale was in keeping with its strategy of concentrating on its upstream activities.
© 1995 The Age