Wagstaff Inc., the 62-year-old Spokane Valley maker of equipment for the aluminum-casting industry, plans to construct a large office-building addition to accommodate strong recent growth, says Paul May, its CEO.


Due partly to surging international sales, Wagstaff is on track to increase its revenues by 25 percent or more this year over last year, and next year is lining up very strong already, May says.


The market for manufacturing equipment is strong, particularly for exporting, he says, adding that the weak U.S. dollar is contributing to that rising demand by making equipment built here much more of a bargain to prospective customers overseas.


As of last week, Wagstaff employed about 385 workers, 312 of them here, up sharply from 309 employees overall, 260 of them here, just last October. May says, though, that the planned office building project is needed more to alleviate current cramped quarters than to provide space for possible additional hirees.


Were very crowded, he says. I dont anticipate it will be needed for a lot more hiring.


The 32,000-square-foot addition will be a two-story structure with a basement and will be constructed at the west end of Wagstaffs current 12,000-square-foot office building, which is one of five structures on the companys 14-acre site at 3910 N. Flora, just east of the Spokane Business & Industrial Park.


Wagstaffs complex there includes about 102,000 square feet of manufacturing space in three buildings, a 14,400-square-foot research-and-development building, and the office building, which adjoins its largest manufacturing building. The company expanded last year into a newly constructed building that gave it about 30,000 square feet of additional manufacturing space. It also operates a 57,000-square-foot plant in Hebron, Ky.


Wagstaff hopes to begin building the office addition as soon as it can obtain a permit from the city of Spokane Valley, and would like to have the structures shell completed before winter arrives, May says. He declines to divulge the estimated cost of the project.


Bernardo-Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, designed the project, and Vandervert Construction Inc., of Spokane, is expected to be the general contractor.


One of the underlying reasons for Wagstaffs recent strong growth is that aluminum prices continue to be high, May says. They were up to about $1.50 a pound last week, or well over double the roughly 60 cents the metal was fetching five years ago, and have spiked to all-time highs a couple of times this month following an announcement that Chinas largest smelters would cut production by as much as 10 percent due to power shortages.


Wagstaff doesnt disclose its revenues, but May says theyve grown by about one-third over the last three years. He said last fall that he expected them to rise 8 percent to 10 percent this year, so the actual growth to date has been more than double that forecast.


Analysts have said they expect the aluminum market to remain strong until 2015, if not longer, due mostly to rising global demand for the versatile metal in some of the worlds larger, developing countries.


Wagstaffs main focus is providing the machinery, technology, and related services that enable aluminum producers to transform the metal from its molten form into solid shapes safely while using whats called direct chill casting.


The company manufactures everything from molds and casting machines to the automation systemsincluding computer hardware and softwareused to operate the machines, then helps oversee installation of the systems.


The direct chill casting process uses water to chill the molten aluminum shortly after it has been poured, so it solidifies quickly into the desired shapeseither cylindrical billets, also called rounds, or ingots, also called slabs. The water doesnt contact the metal while its still a liquid, but rather cools the molds through which the molten aluminum passes, then the water coats the solidified hot metal to cool it further. The billets and ingots later are rolled or extruded to create products.


Export customers now account for about 80 percent of Wagstaffs revenues, up from 20 percent in the early 1980s, and the company now serves customers in more than 50 countries, including such companies as Alcoa Inc., Alcan Inc., Novelis Inc., and Kaiser Aluminum Corp.


Contact Kim Crompton at (509) 344-1263 or via e-mail at kimc@spokanejournal.com.