(January 19, 2011) The extrusion plant near Buenos Aires won the President's HSE Award for 2010 at the Hydro Summit in Oslo on Wednesday.

President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzag praised the management and employees: "The reason they are getting this award is that they have a very strong management commitment to safety."But not only the management, they have been able to involve the entire organization. They have been able to visualize safety in a very good way, as well as implementing best practices throughout the organization. And they have excellent housekeeping."

Representing the plant at the Hydro Summit was general manager Ricardo Wagner."It's always nice to be

rewarded like this," Wagner said in accepting the prize from Brandtzag.

"It gives you strength. It's an important recognition that HSE is a pillar of our business."

The jury found that the Argentina plant is characterized by:

. Highly committed management and workforce
. Management very focused on learning to increase further HSE performance
. Excellent approach to risk management
. Very good and systematic visualization of HSE performance, audits, WOC (Walk - Observe - Communicate)
. Extensive HSE training for all employees

. Good system for emergency preparedness in place with excellent visualization
. Excellent housekeeping

The plant was established in 1985 and acquired by Hydro in 2001. It has about 80 employees.
The other nominees were:

Class 1 (fewer than 200 employees)
Metal Markets, Azuqueca, Spain
Building Systems, Gerstungen, Germany
Precision Tubing, Acro, Brazil
Extrusion Eurasia, La Roca, Spain

Class 2 (more than 200 employees)
Primary Metal, Hoyanger, Norway
Rolled Products, Karmoy, Norway
Precision Tubing, Tonder, Denmark