the town see alcoa tennessee . for the river see alcoa river . for other uses see alcoa disambiguation . alcoa inc. alcoa logo designed by saul bass in 1963 type public traded as nyse aa s & p 500 component industry metals manufacturing founded pittsburgh pennsylvania u.s. 1888 founder charles martin hall headquarters lever house midtown manhattan new york city operational base in pittsburgh area served worldwide key people klaus kleinfeld chairman and ceo products value added products made of titanium nickel and aluminum as well as bauxite alumina and primary aluminum revenue 22.5 billion 2015 1 operating income 1.9 billion 2015 1 net income 121 million 2015 1 total assets 36.7 billion 2015 1 total equity 14.3 billion 2015 1 number of employees 60 000 december 2015 2 website www.alcoa.com global en home.asp alcoa inc. from aluminum company of america is an american public company best known for its work with lightweight metals and advanced manufacturing techniques . the world s third largest producer of aluminum behind chinalco and rusal 3 4 the company has corporate headquarters in new york city . from its operational base in pittsburgh pennsylvania in the united states alcoa conducts operations in 30 countries . it is one of the world s largest lightweight metal manufacturers of products made of aluminum titanium and nickel . alcoa s products are used worldwide in aircraft automobiles commercial transportation packaging building and construction oil and gas defense and industrial applications . alcoa s products include fastening systems for the airbus a380 jet sheets for ford s f 150 truck and the first aluminum fan blade for pratt & whitney jet engines . 5 alcoa also supplies aerospace grade aluminum produced in south korea to samsung electronics for its galaxy s6 and galaxy s7 model line up . 6 alcoa is a major producer of primary aluminum fabricated aluminum and alumina combined through its participation in all major aspects of the industry technology mining refining smelting fabricating and recycling . 7 as of 2015 the company has 36.7 billion in assets and 60 000 employees . its operations are made up of three business groups engineered products and solutions eps ; global rolled products grp ; and global primary products gpp . eps consists of five businesses aerospace gas turbines building and construction and commercial transportation . eps mainly concerns the manufacturing operations such as production of airfoils fasteners and architectural systems . the grp segment possesses two units global packaging producing beverage containers industrial packing and foil ; and aerospace transportation and industrial which manufactures aluminum plates and sheets for these markets . the gpp manages the commodity segment wherein the mining refining smelting and energy operations are run . the company s largest business unit grp generated 31 % of its revenue in 2014 while the eps business made up 25 % . the primary metals unit or gpp accounted for 28 % of revenue while the production of alumina contributed the remainder . 5 as of 2016 alcoa will be split into two publicly traded entities an aluminum commodity business and a higher value manufacturing operations company . the former will keep the alcoa name while the latter s name is arconic . while the aluminum company will possess five business units including bauxite and aluminum the second entity s portfolio will comprise eps grp and transportation and construction solutions tcs . the split is to be finalised by mid 2016 . the new alcoa consists of 64 facilities a staff of roughly 17000 and a yearly revenue of 13.2 billion for 2014 . the second company spans 157 sites and employs about 43000 workers having a comparative revenue of 14.5 billion . 8 9 as of 2007 the company has undergone a divestment from primary aluminum focusing on higher profit value added metal products such as aluminum sheets and titanium castings instead . since that year alcoa has closed or sold 1.3 million tons of its smelting capacity and will continue to do so according to the wall street journal . the change in strategy has produced a favourable turnaround with the company seeing its best operating results since 2008 with a net profit of 368 million in 2014 . 10 11 alcoa owns several businesses such as kawneer and howmet castings . rank group limited a new zealand based company bought alcoa s packaging and consumer businesses for 2.7 billion . the sale was announced on december 21 2007 12 and closed in the first quarter of 2008 . 13 alcoa was a member of the dow jones industrial average until 2013 when it was replaced by nike . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 early history mining smelting and manufacturing 1.2 expansion 1.3 diversification 1.4 investments 1.5 appointment of klaus kleinfeld 1.5.1 change in strategy 1.6 recent developments 2 environmental record 3 operations 3.1 americas and caribbean 3.1.1 gpp 3.1.2 eps and grp 3.2 africa 3.3 europe 3.3.1 gpp 3.3.2 eps and grp 3.4 asia 3.5 oceania 3.5.1 gpp 3.5.2 grp and eps 4 in popular culture 5 gallery 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit early history mining smelting and manufacturing edit in 1886 charles martin hall a graduate of oberlin college discovered the process of smelting aluminum affordably almost simultaneously with paul h roult in france . he realized that by passing an electric current through a bath of cryolite and aluminum oxide the then semi rare metal aluminum remained as a byproduct . this discovery now called the hall h roult process is still the only process used to make aluminum however see also bayer process . 5 a tablet marking where in november 1888 the pittsburgh reduction company now aluminum company of america produced the first commercial run of aluminum by the hall electrolytic process . tablet installed by historical society of western pennsylvania in 1938 . in 1887 hall made an agreement to try his process at the electric smelting and aluminum company plant in lockport new york but it was not used and hall left after one year . on thanksgiving day 1888 with the help of alfred e. hunt he started the pittsburgh reduction company with an experimental smelting plant on smallman street in pittsburgh pennsylvania . one of alcoa s first products was its aluminum tea kettle . 5 aluminum was selling for 2 a pound in 1890 . 14 in 1891 the company went into production in new kensington pennsylvania . at this point the company began establishing its smelting and extraction businesses while also maintaining a solid manufacturing base in its new kensington works . 15 1894 saw the company buy its first small bauxite deposits in the state of georgia ; the company later expanded by buying deposits in arkansas . by 1909 the u.s. government alleged alcoa owned 90 % of the country s economically viable bauxite deposits . 16 expansion edit in 1895 a third site opened at niagara falls . in 1901 alcoa began lightweighting automobiles . the wright brothers first manned flight at kitty hawk was made with a plane containing an alcoa aluminum engine block and crankcase to save weight in order to accomplish the feat . by about 1903 after a settlement with hall s former employer and while its patents were in force the company was the only legal supplier of aluminum in the us . 17 18 by the turn of the century worldwide aluminum output was just 8000 metric tons . 14 by 1902 new kensington consisted of 173 000 sq. feet on 15 acres with 276 employees and the company operated hydropower and reduction plants in niagara falls ny 1895 shawinigan falls quebec 1900 mining operations in bauxite ar 1901 and reduction facilities in east st. louis il 1902 . the aluminum company of america became the firm s new name on january 1 1907 . 19 by this time the company was producing 15 million lb of aluminum per year . 15 the acronym alcoa was coined in 1910 given as a name to two of the locales where major corporate facilities were located although one of these has since been changed and in 1999 was adopted as the official corporate name . aluminum nodules produced by charles martin hall in 1886 using the electrolytic process exhibit in the senator john heinz history center . the company s expansion of operations to the dutch and british guianas during the early years of the twentieth century established the company as the dominant actor in the bauxite industry throughout the interwar period being in control of the best deposits in the region . alcoa operating in the british empire s soil had to concede to an agreement with the british government which consisted of accepting that bauxite from public properties already leased was to be placed at the government s disposal . an alumina refinery was built in canada during the early 1930s to accommodate to these demands wherein in case of an emergency the government would be able to seize the aluminum it needed . during wwii this policy proved useful for the war effort and some output from alcan smelters was used . 16 20 from 1902 until 1915 additional plants in massena new york 1903 ; alcoa tennessee 1911 ; edgewater new jersey 1915 ; and badin north carolina 1915 came online while new kensington had 31 buildings in the complex housing six departments tubes sheets rods bar and wire extrusion jobbing foil and two subsidiaries aluminum cooking utensil company and aluminum seal company . in 1907 it created the company town of pine grove new york for workers outside massena . in badin alcoa maryville and elsewhere the company funded the construction of schools parks playgrounds and medical facilities . 19 in 1910 alcoa introduced its aluminum foil . by 1912 alcoa had extensive holdings in europe including norway france italy spain yugoslavia england and germany . by 1917 the us military used 90 % of alcoa s aluminum production for the war effort producing equipment such as helmets gas masks and identification tags . 21 by the end of world war i alcoa s new kensington facility accounted for 3 292 workers a fifth of the local population and covered over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space on 75 acres . 19 alcoa had roughly half of the world s capacity in aluminum by 1928 signifying a total of approximately 150000 metric tons . 22 at this time a new holding termed aluminum limited of canada based in montreal was created to encompass all international operations of the company . it was later renamed alcan in 1966 . 22 23 it retained an alcoa management and notably at this time both companies remained the world s two biggest aluminum producers . 24 during the interwar period alcoa purchased several european companies to exclude them from the american market . 25 amelia earhart s plane during her last flight in 1937 was supplied by alcoa . 26 in 1938 the justice department charged alcoa with illegal monopolization and demanded that the company be dissolved . the case of united states v. alcoa was settled six years later . during world war ii alcoa built 20 plants in 3 years to meet the wartime demands . for instance its cleveland works facility was put in place as part of the air force heavy press program and still remains in use . 25 27 28 former site of alcoa edgewater works in edgewater nj . diversification edit notably 5704 alcoa aluminum spandrels were used to build the empire state building . 29 in 1952 alcoa built the first aluminum sheathed skyscraper in the u.s. ; the alcoa building in pittsburgh served as its headquarters . 30 during the next 6 years alcoa aluminum sheathed buildings across the u.s. numbered over 600 . 30 in 1955 alcoa produced the first aluminum wheel for a passenger car the