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Alcoa chairman, Alain Belda, and CEO, Klaus Kleinfeld, rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange this morning, celebrating Alcoa’s 50 years as part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Ringing the opening bell also forms part of the company’s year long celebrations – 2009 is the 120th anniversary of Alcoa’s founding.

Alcoa has been a member of The Dow longer than quarters of the nearly 100 companies included in the index since its creation in 1896. Alcoa joined the Dow on 1 June 1959, as the Aluminum Company of America – demonstrating the importance of aluminium to the post-war industrial era and Alcoa as a leading-edge market indicator based on its wide variety of customers.

“In the 50 years that Alcoa has been a Dow company, we’ve grown from 17 US locations to a global company with operations in 31 countries,” said president and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, before ringing the bell that signals the start of the day’s trading activity. “Since aluminium – today’s “miracle metal” — is widely used in virtually every industry, Alcoa has become an important contributor to the Dow Index’s role as a barometer of the US economy.”