EAS, Changchun Engley Jointly Tap Lightweight Auto Parts Market

Taipei, Oct. 20, 2009 (CENS)--Alcan Engineered & Automotive Solutions (EAS), a business unit of leading international mining group Rio Tinto, recently signed an agreement with Changchun Engley Automobile Parts Co. Ltd. (Engley) to create a joint venture to tap China's energy-saving vehicle market.

Engley, however, is a 100%-owned subsidiary of Taiwan-based Maw Hung Industrial Co., Ltd. The Chinese subsidiary is headquartered in Changchun City, Jilin Province of China. In both Suzhou (Jiangsu Province) and Changchun, Engley has a strong production base for auto parts and mould manufacturing. Engley is not only a supplier of steel and aluminum crash management and body-in-white modules, but is also the largest Chinese supplier of long glass-fiber thermoplastic parts, specializing in injection parts such as underbody shields, front-ends, doors, spare wheel, pans etc.

The joint venture company, dubbed Alcan Engley Automotive Structures Co., Ltd., will be based in Changchun with a second manufacturing plant located in Kunshan of Jiangsu Province to develop and produce crash management systems, instrument panel beams in aluminum, and other structural aluminums modules. Alcan Automotive will be the majority shareholder and expects to start supplying products in late 2009.

Wolfgang Schmitz, president of EAS, said that Alcan's advanced aluminum lightweight solutions play a significant role in today's fuel-efficient cars all over the world including China, where is posting double-digit growth in car sales and will continue to offer exceptional growth opportunities for our engineered products in the coming years.

Through several project acquisitions in recent years, Alcan EAS has become a preferred supplier of advanced lightweight solutions in Europe and North America. With the partnership with Engley is the next logical step to grow EAS's footprint and support the development of aluminum systems for the Chinese and Asian markets.