NEW YORK (AP) — Alcoa on Monday signed a $1.1 billion deal to make jet engine parts for a unit of United Technologies Corp.
Alcoa said it will provide the first aluminum fan blade for jet engines, designed to reduce weight and boost fuel efficiency.
Alcoa mines and refines aluminum, but with low aluminum prices, it has increasingly shifted into making parts for aerospace, autos and other industries using aluminum, titanium and nickel.
Last month, the Pittsburgh-based aluminum company said it planned to spend nearly $3 billion to buy British jet engine component company Firth Rixson.
The 10-year deal with Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies, was signed at the Farnborough Air Show in England.
Shares of Alcoa Inc. rose 13 cents to $16.11 in afternoon trading. Earlier its shares rose as high as $16.25, their highest point since July 2011. Shares of Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies, which makes elevators, helicopters and jet engines, rose 73 cents to $114.86.
