Company Overview

Aleris is a global leader in the production and sale of aluminum rolled and extruded products, recycled aluminum, and specifications alloy manufacturing.  From its headquarters in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Aleris operates more than 40 production facilities on a combined basis throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Major customers include some of the world’s largest companies in the aerospace, automotive, building and construction, container and packaging, military and defense, and transportation industries.  Aleris serves these customers with its flexible, technically advanced, and strategically located manufacturing operations supported by industry-leading research and development. The company employs more than 6,500 people.

• Aleris is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of rolled aluminum sheet, plate, brazing sheet and extruded products for use in the aerospace, building and construction, automotive, distribution and transportation industry segments.  
• Aleris also produces superior-quality coated aluminum products. In the coating process, aluminum sheet is chemically cleaned, painted and/or cured to produce a more durable and functional surface.
• Our recycling operations melt and process both company-owned and customer-owned aluminum scrap and by-products.  The recycled product is then delivered in either molten or solid form to customers, or processed further by Aleris in our own manufacturing operations.
• In addition, Aleris is a leading producer of specification alloys, in which other metals combine with aluminum to enhance strength, formability, wear resistance, or other features specified by customers for a wide range of applications.

We operate primarily through three reportable business segments: Rolled Products North America, Recycling and Specification Alloys Americas and Europe, providing products and services to customers in a variety of industries.

Our Businesses

Rolled Products North America

Aleris’s Rolled Products North America (RPNA) segment produces rolled products for a wide variety of applications, including building and construction, distribution, transportation and other uses in consumer durables general industrial segments. Except for depot sales, which are for standard size products, substantially all of the rolled aluminum products in the United States are manufactured to specific customer requirements, using direct-chill and continuous ingot cast technologies that allow Aleris to use and offer a variety of alloys and products for a number of end uses.

Recycling and Specification Alloys Americas

Aleris’s Recycling and Specification Alloy Americas (RSAA) segment includes aluminum melting, processing and recycling activities, as well as its specification alloys manufacturing business.  The segment’s recycling operations convert scrap and dross (a byproduct of melting aluminum) and combine these materials with other alloy agents as needed to produce recycled metal generally for participants in the metal industry serving end-uses related to consumer packaging, transportation and construction.  Historically, a significant percentage of these products are sold through “tolling” arrangements, in which Aleris converts customer-owned scrap and dross and returns the recycled metal in ingot or molten form to its customers for a fee. 

The segment’s specification alloy operations combine various aluminum scrap types with hardeners and other additives to produce alloys and chemical compositions with specific properties (including increased strength, formability and wear resistance) as specified by customers for their particular applications.  The specification alloy operations typically deliver its recycled and specification alloy products to customers in molten or ingot form. 

Europe

Aleris’s Europe segment is comprised of the rolled and extruded products and recycling operations in Europe, Wales and a single extrusion facility in China.  The Europe segment produces rolled products for a wide variety of technically sophisticated applications, including aerospace plate and sheet, brazing sheet, automotive sheet, and other uses in the engineering, construction, transportation, and packaging industry segments.  Substantially all of the Company’s rolled aluminum products in Europe are manufactured to specific customer requirements using direct-chill ingot cast technologies that allow the Company to use and offer a variety of alloys and products for a number of technically demanding end uses.

The Europe segment also produces extruded aluminum products targeted towards the transportation, electrical, mechanical engineering, and building and construction sectors.  With one of the largest extrusion presses in the world, the Company produces high-end, value-added, large-profile extruded products.  The Company further serves its customers by performing value-added fabrication on most of its extruded products.  The Company’s extruded products are used for, among other things, urban transport systems, automotive parts, aircraft and windowsills, roofing, window systems and balconies.

The Europe segment also includes certain aluminum melting, processing and recycling activities.  These recycling operations convert scrap and dross (a byproduct of melting aluminum) and combine these materials with other alloy agents as needed to produce recycled metal and specification alloys.  The operations also recycle magnesium scrap.  Historically, a significant percentage of these products are sold through “tolling” arrangements, in which the Company converts customer-owned scrap and dross and returns the recycled metal to its customers for a fee.

Brief History

Aleris was formed on December 9, 2004, through the merger of Commonwealth Industries, Inc. and IMCO Recycling, Inc. The merger created a vertically integrated aluminum company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, Aleris has strengthened its business through internal growth and operational improvements, as well as strategic acquisitions, including the downstream aluminum business of Corus Group plc, which doubled the Company’s size and significantly expanded its presence in Europe and China. Aleris was acquired by Texas Pacific Group (TPG) on December 19, 2006. In January 2007, the Company's Zinc business was sold, allowing Aleris to focus on its core Aluminum business. On February 12, 2009, Aleris International, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary co-debtors filed for voluntary reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and emerged from that process 15 months later on June 1, 2010, having completed its financial and operational restructuring.