Aluminum

I'm not sure what to make of Alcoa Inc. Should I keep its shares in my portfolio? - K.G., via the Internet The world's largest aluminum producer is expected to turn in record revenues for the next couple of years. Global demand for aluminum is strong, even though that metal is not in as short supply as some other commodities. The company controls 13 percent of the world's aluminum smelting, used in products that include soda cans, industrial turbines and aerospace components. Alcoa is, for example, one of the largest suppliers to Boeing Co. Shares of Alcoa (AA)

CHICAGO -- Reynolds Metals Co., North America's No. 3 aluminum producer, got an all-cash takeover offer from investment firm Michigan Avenue Partners, rivaling a half-cash, half-stock offer from Alcoa Inc. in an effort to keep Reynolds independent, the investment firm said yesterday.The value of the offer wasn't disclosed, though Chicago-based Michigan Avenue Partners said its offer is higher than Alcoa's, which is equivalent to $65 a share, or $5.6 billion including assumed debt. Reynolds shares rose $3 to $69.375.

The best bakeware for pizza conducts heat well and distributes heat evenly to create a crisp crust. Heavy-gauge aluminum or steel pizza pans are traditionally good choices. Also popular are pans made of air-cushioned aluminum or perforated metal.-- Cole's Cooking A to Z

Alcoa Inc., the world's largest aluminum producer, announced a $4.2 billion unsolicited all-cash bid yesterday for the rival Reynolds Metals Co., a day after Reynolds spurned Alcoa's friendly half-cash, half-stock offer.To turn up the pressure, Alcoa also said it would take its hostile bid directly to Reynolds' shareholders and ask them to remove the company's board, which opposed Alcoa's first overture.Alcoa's move comes as consolidation sweeps the global aluminum industry. On Wednesday, a two-continent, three-company deal was announced when Alcan Aluminium of Canada, Pechiney SA of France and Alusuisse Lonza Group AG of Switzerland agreed to a $17.6 billion merger.

Nearly three months after a reactor explosion that injured five of its workers, Condea Vista resumed production at its South Baltimore plant late yesterday.Condea Vista, which makes a key ingredient in household cleaners, received the state's permission to start up the plant after signing a consent decree Dec. 24 with the Maryland Department of the Environment.In the decree, the chemical manufacturer admitted to illegally discharging visible emissions, failing to take reasonable precautions to prevent the accident and creating a public nuisance.

ACHINSK, Russia -- Alexander Lebed, the would-be president, has a keen interest in Sunday's parliamentary elections, but it has nothing to do with ideology or factional politics or party-building.For the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia, the election returns that matter are here, in the 45th District, and they are all about strong-arm power. They will go a long way toward determining the victor in Lebed's epic struggle to wrest control of a vast aluminum empire from a charismatic and reputedly violent businessman.

AS WITH most home-improvement projects, the decision to build or screen in a porch or patio is just the beginning of the decisions you have to make. They can be as basic as what kind of screening to use and as frivolous as whether to put a light fixture on the ceiling fan.Let's start with the screening: What kind of structure you decided to build will have some bearing on the screening and the system used to install it. With a wood-frame structure, the...

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore and Baltimore County.Western DistrictShooting: A 16-year-old youth was arguing with an unlicensed taxi driver in the 1900 block of W. North Ave. about midnight Wednesday when the driver pulled a handgun and shot the youth in the left buttock. The victim was treated at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Southern DistrictTheft: Two 20-foot aluminum boats and a 10-foot aluminum boat, all valued at more than $4,000, were stolen between May 28 and Wednesday from a fenced-in lot at the Community Family Center in the 900 block of Key Highway.

IT'S JUST a simple deck, but during the past few years it's had almost as many lives as a cat.It started about eight years ago, when clients asked Ron to replace a window at the back of their house with a door that would lead to a new deck. A few years later, they decided they wanted to put an addition on the back of the house, so Ron and his crew took off the deck's steps and railings, detached the deck from the house, and set it elsewhere in the yard.Then they built the addition, and then they reattached the deck.

The Aluminum Co. of America will reduce production at its Eastalco Works plant in Frederick, causing 150 layoffs and early retirements, the company said yesterday.The job reductions, some of which already have occurred, should be completed by February, said Earl Robbins, Eastalco's public and government affairs manager.Eastalco produces 174,000 metric tons of aluminum a year, but that will be scaled back to 144,000 metric tons. Other Alcoa plants will absorb the 30,000-metric-ton load, he said.

Millicent Jordan vividly recalls the first aluminum Christmas tree she ever purchased. She was 22 years old when she saw the sad-looking little silver tree at a garage sale. "It was marvelous," says Jordan, 38, of Forest Hill. "It came with a rotating color wheel that changed the hue of the tree. I was fascinated by it." She purchased the tree - which she still owns - and 16 years later, it is part of a collection of vintage Christmas trees. Today, she is opening an exhibit at the Liriodendron featuring about 30 aluminum trees that are a kaleidoscope of colors, including green, blue, silver, blue and green, and pink.

I have heard about a link between aluminum in antiperspirants and breast cancer. I have also read that aluminum may be associated with Alzheimer's disease. Every antiperspirant I have checked has aluminum as its main ingredient, which worries me. I switched to a deodorant of mineral salts to get away from aluminum, but I've just discovered that it contains alum. Is that aluminum? The crystal works great, but I don't want aluminum in my life in any form. Is there anything I can use that doesn't contain aluminum?

THE PROBLEM -- Two explanatory panels at the National Katyn Memorial have been damaged for months. THE BACKSTORY -- Vicky Schetelich and her husband, who have lived in Harbor East for nearly three years, take daily strolls along Aliceanna and President streets. They walk past the National Katyn Memorial, a soaring golden statue and fountain that commemorates the 1940 massacre of Polish soldiers by Soviet troops during World War II. Schetelich called the memorial "a little oasis in the middle" of construction that's taken place over the past several years.

Alcoa Inc. Shares tumbled $1.76, or 5.1 percent, to $33.11. Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. said the world's third-largest maker of aluminum may report less profit than analyst estimates when it releases its results this week.

Maryland : Investing Integral Systems announces buyback Satellite provider Integral Systems Inc. said yesterday that it would pay $27 apiece up to $50 million to buy back as much as 1.85 million shares, or 16.7 percent, of its outstanding common stock. The price represents a premium of 9.5 percent over Monday's closing share price for the Lanham-based company. The tender offer expires at midnight Sept. 11. Tricia Bishop Defense Lockheed wins $23 million pact Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $23 million contract from the U.S. Navy to provide technical services for Aegis weapon systems on Norway's F310-class frigates.

I have read that aluminum seems to be associated with Alzheimer's disease. Could the aluminum in antiperspirants increase the risk? What else can you use to reduce underarm sweating and odor? The aluminum/Alzheimer's connection has been debated for decades. Although there is no definitive proof, scientists have linked elevated levels of aluminum to the development of dementia (Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, May). It is not clear whether enough aluminum is absorbed from antiperspirants to pose a problem.

I'm not sure what to make of Alcoa Inc. Should I keep its shares in my portfolio? - K.G., via the Internet The world's largest aluminum producer is expected to turn in record revenues for the next couple of years. Global demand for aluminum is strong, even though that metal is not in as short supply as some other commodities. The company controls 13 percent of the world's aluminum smelting, used in products that include soda cans, industrial turbines and aerospace components. Alcoa is, for example, one of the largest suppliers to Boeing Co. Shares of Alcoa (AA)

Their name is Ferndale Fence and Awning, but they're not in Ferndale and they don't build fences. What they do is make awnings - aluminum awnings that rattle in rainstorms, red-and-white peppermint stripe awnings for barbershops, little awnings that hang over rowhouse windows like drowsy eyelids, big awnings that shield whole families from the hot slap of July sun. For more than three decades, in a whitewashed brick workshop on Thames Street, using just...

FREDERICK -- A state official cast doubt yesterday on a proposal by Alcoa Eastalco Works to share the cost of building a 600-megawatt power plant to generate affordable electricity and revive its Frederick County aluminum smelting plant. The company, which shut down most of the plant in December after failing to reach a deal with Allegheny Energy Inc. on electricity rates, is pitching a public-private partnership to build a natural gas-powered plant at a cost of about $1 billion. It appears to be a last-ditch effort to keep the aluminum plant open, after a private company shelved plans to build a power plant on the property.

A disappointing first quarter, the departure of a top executive and the termination of a promising acquisition set the tone for a "transition" year at Wise Metals Group LLC. Chief Executive Officer David F. D'Addario told analysts during a conference call yesterday that the Linthicum Heights-based company, which produces aluminum sheets for the beverage can industry, is navigating a volatile market. "As we have previously stated, 2006 is a transition year, and we anticipate poor earnings but adequate cash flow," D'Addario said.