Aviation News, Boeing, Airbus

The Boeing Company have confirmed EasyJet’s announcement of an order for 17 new Boeing Next-Generation 737-700 aircraft.

Superior Aluminum Alloys LLC, a venture of OmniSource Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind., took advantage of a generally bearish market by offering decidedly lower prices than those in effect this quarter.

The New Haven, Ind., based alloy producer secured one lot of 1.35 million pounds of the so-called “hockey pucks” at 47.65 cents a pound, about 10 percent less than the comparable price paid by the winning bidder three months earlier. Superior Aluminum will pay a total of $1.3 million vs. $1.44 million paid the last time, a “saving” of some $137,160.

The flip side is that if bearish conditions persist, not only the scrap will be cheaper-so will the specification ingot, molten metal and sows that Superior Aluminum makes for sale into the die casting market.

Asked about the status of the startup of Superior Aluminum, president Bill Bean said that no metal had been poured yet. However, two weeks of a furnace “cure cycle” are about to begin and melting would soon follow.

Boeing, the world’s Boeing, largest builder of commercial aircraft, whose products represent the largest single end market for titanium, said late last week that there had been “no major impact” on its production from the walkout by the United Steel-workers union at RMI’s Niles, Ohio, facility that began Oct. 1. RMI is continuing to produce sheet but at a reduced level.

However, the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group said that Verkhnaya Salda Metallurgical Production Association (VSMPO) of Russia, which already is a long-term supplier to Boeing, principally of ingots, is now producing sheet for the Seattle aircraft manufacturer. Meanwhile, Titanium Metals Corp. (Timet), Denver, also is likely to do so.

“As a further backup,” Boeing said, the association may convert some ingot already under contract from the Russian producer to sheet orders, although it hasn’t yet been asked to do so.

Timet is, now Boeing’s largest titanium supplier under a long-term supply pact signed about 18 months ago, and also is a major sheet producer in its own right, with the ability to roll pretty much the same range as RMI. But RMI is nevertheless considered the industry’s leading specialist in aircraft alloy sheet, with an extremely productive operation in Niles.

While industry sources said the Russian association is eager to provide Boeing with as much sheet as possible, they emphasized that its range below certain thicknesses is limited. Moreover, it isn’t known whether the Russian producer can supply advanced sheet alloys beyond the most prevalent titanium 6-4, such as titanium 6-2-4-2 for higher-temperature applications.

Boeing noted that it is “monitoring the situation closely” at Niles, with regular contacts with RMI executives, and also is conducting on-site visits. RMI executives also are expected in Seattle in about a week.

Prices realized for the “hockey pucks” and for a separate offering of 1 million pounds of mixed aluminum solids were lower than then third-quarter sales by Boeing’s Whichita operation. In contrast, many aluminum scrap items offered by Boeing’s Seattle-area plants rose in value when bids were opened recently (AMM, Oct. 3)

Wabash got the fourth-quarter pucks by topping A. Tenenbaum Co. Inc., North Little Rock, Ark., with a bid of 53.68 cents a pound vs. Tenenbaum’s 52.33 cents a pound.

Tenenbaum, which operates Arkansas Aluminum Alloys Inc., a Hot Springs, Ark., secondary aluminum smelter, had won the briquetted material the last time around (AMM, June 26).

In the recent bidding, Tenenbaum won the 1 million pounds of mixed aluminum solids with a bid of 54.63 cents a pound, three-quarters of a penny more than the Wabash bid of 53.88 cents a pound.

Yaffe Iron & Metal Co. Inc., Muskogee, Okla., was the high bidder for 600,000 pounds of alloy 2024 and alloy 2324 aluminum solids. The winning bid of 39.34 cents a pound topped by around 3 cents a pound the runner-up bid by Glickman Inc., Wichita. However, Glickman’s bid of 36.23 cents a pound for 50,000 pounds of mixed solids and contaminated borings was 5 cents a pound higher than Yaffe’s offer.

The appointment will allow Hopkins to use her talents to help sell Boeing’s vast restructuring to investors. (The company recently announced it would cut 48,000 lobs by the end of 2000, due to declining airplane orders). In the early 1990s, Hopkins was given the task of designing a companywide restructuring plan at Unisys Corp, and presenting it to Wall Street. “That was an opportunity to use my sales skills as well as my financial talents to present a fresh, bold face up on Wall Street,” she told CFO at the time She will now have that opportunity again.

Millions of pounds of briquetted aluminum borings–so-called “hockey pucks”–were valued at 35.75 cents a pound at the high end of the winners’ list and 32.66 cents a pound at the low end.