Russia’s Belaya Kalitva Metallurgical Plant, or BKMPO, owned by Alcoa, is in talks to supply wheels to US-based Ford, Vedomosti business daily reported, citing three separate sources, according to Prime-Tass.
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Alcoa bought BKMPO, located in the Rostov Region, and the Samara Metallurgy Plant for $US257 million from Russian aluminium producer RusAl in January.
Alcoa representative Kevin Lowery told Vedomosti that his company had reached an agreement with one of the big three US auto manufacturers but refused to name the company.
But another source close to the talks said that mass supplies of wheels to Ford are to start in November, the newspaper said.
“In the first stage BKMPO is to supply 5,000 wheels monthly, and later the amount is to increase to 10,000,” the source said.
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By GlobalDataBKMPO is to produce a wider range of wheels for Ford than it produces for the domestic market, the newspaper said.
Selling wheels directly to plants is a new business for BKMPO. Before the company produced only 5,000-6,000 wheels monthly and supplied them to auto parts retailers, not to plants, an official with BKMPO told Vedomosti.
The official added that in the future BKMPO might start wheel supplies to General Motors and DaimlerChrysler. To do this the plant would have to expand its production facilities, he said. None of the sources told Vedomosti what the investments in the possible expansion would be.
In May Alcoa said that it was to invest $37 million in the Belaya Kalitva Metallurgical Plant this year to upgrade facilities producing heat-treated plate and sheet metal.
Lowery said that these investments did not include the investments to develop wheel production, Vedomosti reported.
Ford has one production facility in Russia located in Vsevolzhsk in the Leningrad Region. In 2005 Ford plans to assemble 32,000 Focus cars, including 24,000 Focus II cars. The plant began production of the Focus II in May.
