manufacturing founded 1916 1 2 founder k.c. li headquarters albany linn county oregon area served worldwide key people k.c. li ; lynn d. davis revenue us 265 million fy 2005 3 number of employees 1 100 website official website wah chang corporation is an american manufacturing company based in albany oregon in the united states . in 1916 some sources say 1914 4 5 chinese american mining engineer kuo ching li 2 founded the company in new york state under the name wah chang trading corporation . 4 wah chang is chinese for fortunate enterprise 5 or great development . 6 this expanded as an international tungsten ore and concentrate trading company . li remained with the company until his death in 1961 serving as president until 1960 and then board chairman . 2 in 1946 the company built a plant in union city new jersey . in the 1950s it was also operating tungsten mines in calento nevada and near bishop california . 4 in early 1956 the atomic energy commission contracted with wah chang to run the u.s. bureau of mines zirconium plant in albany oregon to develop high purity zirconium for use in the united states navy s nuclear program . wah chang was privately owned by k. c. li until 1967 when it was acquired by teledyne 7 the main albany plant located in the then unincorporated area known as millersburg becoming a subsidiary named teledyne wah chang albany or twca . 8 in 1966 wah chang had around 1 200 employees in plants in albany oregon ; glen cove new york ; huntsville alabama ; and texas city texas and sales of 40.7 million . 9 the albany plant was by far the largest and at the time of its sale to teledyne it accounted for around 20 million in annual revenue with 860 employees at that location . 7 the alabama factory became a separate subsidiary named teledyne wah chang huntsville . 10 in 1975 twca had 1 400 employees 8 and had 100 million in annual sales . 6 the millersburg plant was listed as a superfund site in 1983 requiring environmental clean up which the company carried out over the following several years . 11 after teledyne merged with allegheny ludlum corporation in 1996 to become allegheny technologies incorporated the company became ati wah chang . in march 2014 12 it was renamed ati specialty alloys and components . 13 references edit from a history of great developments ... . wah chang corporation . archived from the original on july 27 2010 . retrieved 2010 07 09 . a b c albany plant official dies obituary of kuo ching li . the oregonian . march 9 1961 . p. 9 . company history wah chang . answers.com . retrieved 2010 07 09 . a b c ferguson james h. may 11 1956 . business briefs new industrial resident wah chang moving to oregon . the oregonian . section 2 p. 10 . a b hauser paul january 19 1958 . albany s large zirconium industry outgrowth of experimental plant . the sunday oregonian . section 1 p. 34 . a b exotic metal plant also yields exotic odors . the oregonian . june 17 1976 . p. d9 . a b pratt gerry july 9 1967 . n power boom aids exotic metals plant . the sunday oregonian . section 1 p. 30 . a b in reorganization longtime wah chang leader axed . the sunday oregonian . september 5 1975 . p. d9 . firm moves into metals acquisition by teledyne . the sunday oregonian . april 5 1967 . section 3 p. 7 . plant may spur albany output . the oregonian . june 26 1984 . p. d13 . teledyne wah chang millersburg linn county . oregon health authority . retrieved 2015 02 22 . ati renames business units . metal powder report . april 1 2014 . retrieved 2015 02 22 . albany oregon usa . allegheny technologies inc. retrieved 2015 02 22 . v t e teledyne subsidiaries mattituck services teledyne controls teledyne caris teledyne dalsa teledyne turbine engines wah chang corporation people george kozmetsky donald rice henry earl singleton related allegheny technologies retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wah chang corporation & oldid 737551960 categories companies based in albany oregonalbany oregonmanufacturing companies established in 1916metals companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 3 september 2016 at 15 43 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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