Arconic (ARNC)

• On November 1, 2016, Alcoa Inc. (AA) split into two new entities: Alcoa Corporation (AA), which is engaged in the mining and manufacture of raw aluminum, and Arconic (ARNC), which focuses on the higher-margin business of producing parts for airplanes, cars and the oil and gas industry.
• Arconic-made panels blamed for spreading Grenfell Tower fire in London, where 79 people died in a blaze in June, 2015.  It was the deadliest fire in Great Britain since the Second World War.  (The fire started with a Whirlpool (WHR) refrigerator but quickly spread to the cladding. Note: The Hotpoint refrigerators were made by the Italian company Indesit, which was acquired by Whirlpool in 2014.)

  

• Grenfell Tower fire in London; North Kensington, London, Britain June, 2017.

  

To save money Grenfell's cladding was switched from less flammable zinc to aluminium
The change saved £293,368 and was part of a list of requested savings on the refurbishment
One of the lead contractors constructing the tower boasted on its website that the project had been completed at £1m under budget.

Arconic said in a statement that it had known the panels would be used at Grenfell Tower but that it was not its role to decide what was or was not compliant with local building regulations.

The company manufactures three main types of Reynobond panel-- one with a polyethylene (PE) core, one with a fire retardant core and another with a non-combustible core, according to its website.

Diagrams in a 2016 Arconic brochure for its Reynobond panels describe how PE core panels are suitable up to 10 metres in height. Panels with a fire resistant core -- the FR model -- can be used up to 30 metres, while above that height, panels with the non-combustible core -- the A2 model -- should be used, the brochure says.

Grenfell Tower is more than 60 metres tall.

The brochure also issued a blunt warning that cladding can be a fire risk.

Harley Facades Ltd., the company which installed the panels, Rydon Group, the overall contractor on the 2014-2016 Grenfell refurbishment, and the local authority, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the tower block all declined to comment.

Rydon previously said in a statement that its work on the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, which was intended to give the building better heat and sound insulation, complied with all building regulations. Harley said last week it was "not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower".