US Building Slump Results in Steel Mill Idling

Aleris International, Inc. announced today that it will be temporarily idling the majority of its total production at its Richmond, Virginia rolling mill due to the continuing downturn in the North American building and construction industry. This action will allow us to better align our production with demand. All production for customers will be phased-out during the first quarter of 2008 and transferred to other Aleris facilities in North America. Aleris will continue to provide the same high quality products and services that customers expect.

Prior to today’s announcement, the Richmond facility supplied aluminum coil for building and construction applications and employed approximately 100 operations employees. Once the phase-out is complete, the facility will employ approximately 25 operations employees and will be used primarily for product development and internal requirements.