Alcoa Mill Products Achieves Top 10% Global Supplier Status with Nissan North America's Quality Master Award

PITTSBURGH--March 25, 2004--Alcoa announced today that for the second year in a row its Mill Products business received the Quality Master Award from Nissan North America. Alcoa's Davenport, Iowa and Danville, Illinois, plants are major suppliers of aluminum sheet products for the hoods, deck lids and various structural applications for Nissan's Altima and Maxima sedans.

The Quality Master Award is based on the evaluation of Nissan's suppliers by the company's engineering, manufacturing, product quality, purchasing and production control units. Only suppliers that have achieved a high level rating by each function can succeed in achieving this recognition. Based on this, Alcoa has proven itself to be one of Nissan's higher performing suppliers.

"This recognition by one of our top customers exemplifies the quality and delivery performance capabilities Alcoa Mill Products offers to the automotive industry. I congratulate our employees in the Davenport and Danville plants, as well as our entire technical service and application engineering organizations, who worked hand-in-hand to ensure our product meets or exceeds Nissan's expectations," said Bob Wetherbee, President of Alcoa Mill Products. "We will continue to look for ways to increase the value we deliver to Nissan through our service model, alloy development and design solutions."

Alcoa Mill Products produces the widest variety of aluminum sheet and plate products in the world. It makes everything from common alloy products to aerospace sheet and plate.

Alcoa is the world's leading producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components, Alcoa also markets consumer brands including Reynolds Wrap(R) foils and plastic wraps, Alcoa(R) wheels, and Baco(R) household wraps. Among its other businesses are vinyl siding, closures, fastening systems, precision castings, and electrical distribution systems for cars and trucks. The company has 120,000 employees in 41 countries. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com