Varomet Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Straits Resources, has bought Norsk Hydro"s magnesium operations.

The Hydro Magnesium acquisition complements Varomet"s existing GfE business, which supplies specialty metals to the foundry and steel industries.

Hydro Magnesium has operations in Germany and China and is a leader in production of high quality magnesium alloy and anode.

The German operation uses state-of-the-art technology to recycle magnesium to a high end product. The Chinese plant uses pure magnesium as feedstock and has high-level certification allowing it to deliver its product to European car makers.

The combined operations have a turnover of US$91 million and an annual production of 30,000 million tonnes of magnesium alloys which primarily goes to the automotive industries in Germany, Japan and China. In addition, 1100 million tonnes of magnesium sacrificial anodes are produced for use in the water heater industries in China and Europe.