Alcoa Contributes to a Sustainable 2008 Beijing Olympics

by ALCOA 06 Aug 21:34

NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Alcoa (NYSE:AA) announced today that it is contributing to China’s commitment to a “green” Olympics by providing lightweight aluminum for transportation systems that will be used during the games and including its aluminum composite material on several new venues constructed especially for the 2008 Beijing Olympics starting on August 8.

Visitors to the Olympic Village will ride on buses powered by electricity and rolling on stylish Alcoa polished, forged aluminum wheels. Alcoa provided customer Beijing Public Transport Holding Ltd. (BPTC), a large state-owned public transport service, with 350 wheels for 50 buses. The lightweight, Alcoa aluminum wheels provide significant weight savings over comparable steel wheels, shaving nearly 275 pounds from each bus, which, in turn, improved the overall operating efficiency of the electric buses. The Alcoa aluminum wheels also proved to be both fuel efficient and cost effective during road testing conducted by BPTC