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Industry-related Terms

Alloy
A substance with metallic properties, composed of two or more chemical elements of which at least one is a metal, such as aluminum, and produced to have certain specific characteristics.

Alumina
A white, powdery substance produced from bauxite by a chemical process during which aluminum oxide is extracted from the ore. Between four and five tonnes of bauxite are required to produce about two tonnes of alumina, which yield one tonne of aluminum.

Aluminum
The most common metal on earth, constituting 8% of the earth's crust but never found naturally in its pure form. Aluminum metal is produced by separating aluminum from oxygen in alumina.

Bauxite
An ore or rock composed of hydrous aluminum oxides and aluminum hydroxides. The most economic source of aluminum, it is predominantly found in tropical and sub-tropical regions.

Brownfield Expansion
An investment that provides incremental capacity to an existing smelter. A greenfield expansion, on the other hand, is one that involves investment in building a new plant.

Continuous Casting
A process used to produce thin aluminum foil directly from liquid metal without hot rolling. Alcan's new proprietary Belt Casting Technology, called FLEXCASTER™, is a high production, extremely energy efficient, continuous casting process that transforms liquid aluminum into thin coils in a continuous operation.

Contract Packaging
A clean room environment, providing solid and liquid dose (tablets, capsules, liquids or ointments) packaging of bulk products into blisters, bottles, cartons, cards, plastic tubes or kits — many of which one would find on pharmacy shelves.

Engineered Products
A basic aluminum fabricated product that has been mechanically, and at times thermally, altered to create special properties for specific purposes. Examples are rod, wire and cable, castings, composites, extrusions and/or components for various systems or end-use markets.

Extrusions
Aluminum shaped by being forced through a die. Alcan offers a full range of standard, specialized and customized extrusion billet products for the building and construction as well as the transportation markets.

Fabricated Products
Generally comprise rolled products and other engineered products.

Foil
A thin sheet of metal, around 0.006 inch (0.15 millimetre) thick or less, and widely used in the packaging, household and industrial markets.

Ingot
A cast form suitable for fabricating or remelting. Sometimes called sheet ingot, foundry ingot or extrusion billet, ingots and billets can be produced in a wide range of alloys and purity levels and in different shapes and sizes.

Kaizen
A Japanese word meaning gradual and orderly, continuous improvement. The Kaizen business strategy involves a rigorous methodology whereby everyone within an organization works together, most often in designated teams, to make improvements and implement solutions with creativity and without large capital investments.

London Metal Exchange (LME)
A metals trading centre. The LME determines the metal price for aluminum trading for current and future delivery.

Packaging
A range of flexible and specialty packaging produced from aluminum foil, paper, plastic, glass, paperboard, tinplate and laminated products into custom-designed consumer packaging solutions for the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics/personal care and tobacco markets.

Recycled Metal
Remelted used beverage cans (UBCs) or any other post-consumer scrap as well as customer process scrap. Recycling aluminum only requires about 5% of the energy required to produce primary metal.

Rolled Products
Sheet ingots reduced in thickness by passing them between rollers in a series of reversing hot rolling mills and, finally, in a cold rolling mill. Aluminum sheet, often referred to specifically as either auto, can or lithographic sheet, is primarily used for the can and container, lithography, transportation and building end-use markets.

Smelting
The process of producing primary aluminum through the electrolytic reduction of alumina. The molten aluminum can be castinto ingots and then fabricated into a variety of products.

Specialty Chemicals
Derived from chemical-grade alumina or alumina hydrate, the starting material for a wide variety of specialty chemical products.

Tolling
The activity of converting customer-owned alumina into aluminum or rolling aluminum ingots into sheet products.



Financial Terms

EBITDA
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization.

EVA®, Economic Value Added
The registered trademark of Stern Stewart & Co. and a key measure of financial performance. The term means the difference between the return on capital and the cost for using that capital over the same period.

GAAP
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Return on Average Common Shareholders' Equity (at times referred to as ROE, or return on equity)
Net income after preference share dividends, expressed as a percentage of average common shareholders' equity.

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Terms
The word "Alcan" or "Company" means Alcan Inc. and, where applicable, one or more consolidated subsidiaries. A "subsidiary" is a company controlled by Alcan. A "joint venture" is an association (incorporated or unincorporated) of companies jointly undertaking some commercial enterprise and proportionately consolidated to the extent of Alcan's participation. A "related company" is one in which Alcan has significant influence over management but owns 50% or less of the voting stock. The "Alcan Group" refers to Alcan Inc., its subsidiaries, joint ventures and related companies. "algroup" means Alusuisse Group Ltd (now Alcan Holdings Switzerland Ltd.).

In this Web site, unless stated otherwise, all dollar amounts are stated in United States dollars and all quantities in metric tons, or tonnes. A tonne is 1,000 kilograms, or 2,204.6 pounds.

The following abbreviations are used:

/t per tonne
kt thousand tonnes
kt/y thousand tonnes per year
Mt million tonnes
Mt/ymillion tonnes per year
g/kWhgrams per kilowatt-hour
Mwmegawatt




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