Alcoa Opens New Automotive Development Center in Czech Republic

PITTSBURGH & PLZEN, Czech Republic--May 1, 20050, 2005--Alcoa announced today that its AFL Automotive business has opened a new development center in Plzen, Czech Republic, for the design and development of high quality automotive electric and electronic distribution systems for European automakers. The new center enhances AFL Automotive's capabilities to support its customers regional and global development efforts and builds upon AFL Automotive's capability to leverage resources in the important product development area.

"This new location will primarily serve Skoda, one of the most well known European car brands, but will also enable AFL Automotive to attract new customers in the emerging Central and Eastern European automotive markets. By locating decisive development centers near our customers, we believe we offer the most value, best quality and cost-effective solutions to our customers by collaborating and blending our global engineering resources," said Martin Freiberger, senior vice president AFL Automotive-Europe. "We share the passion of our customers for their products, and we want to help them reach more end users with a competitive vehicle package," he said.

The new Development Center employs 30 technical and other professionals. It joins AFL Automotive's other Development Centers in Germany, UK, China, North American and South America.

AFL Automotive has had a presence in the Czech market since 2001, supplying electrical distribution systems, subassemblies and components to automotive customers including Skoda, Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and others from its location in Stribo, Czech Republic.

About Alcoa

Alcoa is the world's leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina facilities, 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 131,000 employees in 43 countries and has been a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for 45 years and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes since 2001. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com