Directory of Transnational Corporations
July 1996 Edition
compiled by George Draffan
© Public Information Network
P.O. Box 95316, Seattle WA 98145-2316
E-mail: itp@igc.apc.org
Internet: http://violet.berkeley.edu/~orourke/PIN.html
The Public Information Network is a 501(c)(3) public interest
group providing research services and information to citizens
and environmental, economic, and human rights activists. PIN maintains
several databases on the environmental and social impacts of corporations,
offers short-term as well as ongoing research services, and provides
training in activist research methods. Contact us or visit our
Internet site for updates to the Directory of Transnational Corporations,
the Activist Research Manual, and other PIN projects. Create democracy.
"We need to publish a Catalog of Global Carpetbaggers, entrepreneurs
eager to profit on misery. We should name names and illustrate
the book with the shocking examples of what these people and their
uncontrolled multinationals have done to the earth. We should
describe these companies, who controls them, and estimate whether
they are solvent enough to put up a big environmental restoration
bond." -- David Brower (Beware of Joint-Venture Vultures,
Earth Island Journal, Fall 1991, p.35).
ABB ASEA BROWN BOVERI
Zurich Switzerland
41-1-317-71-11
900 Long Ridge Rd.
Stamford CT 06904
203-328-2380
ABB was created in 1988 by the merger of ASEA of Sweden and BBC
Brown Boveri of Switzerland; each retains its own companies (like
ASEA's control of Electrolux) but shares equal ownership in the
new conglomerate. ABB is now the world's largest electrical engineering
corporation, with 1300 companies in 140 countries. Operations
include power plants and transmission, electrical equipment, motors,
robotics, satllite communications, steel-making equipment, and
waste handling systems (Hoover's Handbook of World Business 1993,
p. 116-117).
ABB Mannhein, a German subsidiary, was awarded a billion dollar
contract to build a hydroelectric plant on the Karun River in
Iran (Hoover's Handbook of World Business 1993, p. 116-117).
See also Combustion Engineering, a subsidiary of ABB since 1989.
ACOJE MINING
Chromite mining in Philippines (Mining Magazine, Mar. 1992, p.
136).
ADM see Archer Daniels Midland
ADOBE RESOURCES see Anglo American (Minorco)
AERO-BROKERS TRADING CO.
Box 3627
Wenatchee, WA 98801
509-663-1535
Imports and exports Central American wood, especially from Guatemala.
Also has offices in Honolulu, Hawaii and Long Beach, California
(Asian Timber, 1988).
AES
1001 N. 19th Street
Arlington VA 22209
703-522-1315
AES had a 33.7 percent return on equity in 1992 (1993 Business
Week 1000, p. 199).
AES Barbers Point is the first major coal-fired power plant in
Hawaii, and the single largest supplier of power to Hawaii Electric
Company (equivalent to 18 percent of the electric consumption
of the island of Oahu). AES has received environmental award for
selling 100 tons of coal ash per day for use as a construction
aggregate and as a soil amendment on sugar cane fields (Hawaii
Investor, Apr. 1993, p. 14).
AFRICAN TIMBER AND PLYWOOD
Sapele, Nigeria
Unilever owns 40 percent of UAC of Nigeria Ltd., which is part
of African Timber and Plywood (Business in the Rain Forests, p.
90-91).
AGIT
Italy
In 1958, Shell discovered petroleum near the Niger River delta
in Nigeria; since then, Shell has extracted $30 billion worth
of oil and natural gas. Shell, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, and other
oil companies generate 80 percent of Nigeria's annual revenue.
Since 1993, the local Ogoni people have been suppressed; 20 Ogoni
towns have been destroyed, 1,800 people killed, and 50,000 left
homeless. The Nigerian government's hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight
other Ogoni peoples activists on November 10, 1995. Shell has
been condemned for its role; over 300 people protested at Shell's
New York headquarters on November 13, 1995. A few days after the
execution, Shell announced a new $4 billion Nigerian natural gas
plan; ELF, and Agit are also involved. (Interview with Human Rights
Watch on National Public Radio on Nov. 16; RAN Action Alert, No.
115, Dec. 1995).
AGUSAN WOOD INDUSTRIES
Philippines
Mitsubishi has a large investment in Agusan, producing plywood
in the Philippines (Rainforest Action Network Action Alert, No.
79, December 1992). See Mitsubishi.
AKOSUMBOA DAM see Valco
AKZO
U.S.
Has 350 facilities in 50 countries selling 10,000 chemical, fiber,
automobile and aerospace coatings, and health care (birth control
and fertility drugs, anesthetics, poultry vaccines) products worth
about $10 billion per year; half the facilities are in the U.S.
and Canada. New facilities include Singapore wood coating manufacturing;
the company "also sees potential in Thailand, Indonesia,
China, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan" (Asian Timber,
Feb. 1992, p. 31-32).
Former company names include AKZO Coatings and Reliance Universal;
brand names include Reliance, Levis paint, and Hanna.
ALASKA PULP COMPANY
Sitka, Alaska
Mitsubishi is part-owner of the Alaska Pulp Corporation, which
has a subsidized monopoly on the Tongass National Forest and a
mill in Sitka (Ran Action Alert, No. 94, Mar. 1994).
ALBERT ABELA (GULF) INC.
Sa'dah and Tabaq/Awtaq prospecting in Yemen with Cluff Resources.
The joint venture is named Cluff Abela Minerals (Yemen) Ltd.,
or CAM (Mining Magazine, Sept. 1991, p.176).
ALBERTA & SOUTHERN GAS CO.
425 First St. SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3L8
Canada
403-260-9911
A subsidiary of Pacific Gas & Electric. Exports natural gas.
ALBERTA-PACIFIC FOREST INDUSTRIES (ALPAC)
Alberta, Canada
Alpac is a Mitsubishi-backed pulp mill on the Athabasca River
(Taiga-News: Newsletter on Boreal Forests, No. 5, March 1992,
p.5).
ALCAN
1188 Sherbrooke St. West
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 3G2
514-848-8000
Spun off from Alcoa by U.S. court order in 1945 (see Alcoa).
Involved in Russia.
Alcan was involved in a feasibility study to reopen the Lydford
bauxite mine in Jamaica; the Ukraine is also involved in the plan,
with Jamaica Bauxite Mining (Mining Magazine, Mar. 1992, p.179).
Part owner (with Reynolds Metals and others) of the Mineracao
Rio do Norte project in the Trombetas River basin in Brazil. Like
Alcoa and Shell-Billiton's Amazon Bauxite Mine, it is near the
Trombetas Biological Reserve, and threatens the River itself.
See Business in the Rainforests: Corporations, Deforestation and
Sustainability, by Conrad B. MacKerron (Investor Responsibility
Research Center, Washington DC, 1993); and Who Owns the Earth,
by James Ridgeway.
ALCO PACIFIC
El Florida, Mexico
In the 1980s, Alco Pacific extracted lead from used car batteries.
Dumped 80,000 tons of lead sulfate and other toxic and explosive
chemicals; effects include a continuous undergound fire and respiratory
and other diseases; the operation has been abandoned (The Workbook,
Winter 1995-1996, p. 179, citing On The Line: Life on the U.S.-Mexico
Border, by Augusta Dwyer, Latin American Bureau Research and Action,
London, 1994).
ALCOA (ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA)
425 Sixth Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
412-553-4545
Long-time aluminum monopoly owned by the Mellon family, found
illegal by U.S. courts in 1945; the courts ordered Alcoa to sell
many of its operations, including its Canadian ones (Alcan), and
to license other producers under its aluminum ingot patents (A
Primer on Monopoly and Competition, by William F. Mueller, Random
House, 1970, p. 144). Alcoa was the first industrial user of Niagara
River electricity. Alcoa has 159 manufacturing and sales facilities
in 22 countries; its subsidiaries include Alcoa Aluminio (Brazil)
and Alco Brazil Holdings Co., Alcoa of Australia Ltd., Coastal
Chemicals, Alcoa Fujikura, Alcoa Nederland, Suriname Aluminum
Co., and Stolle Corporation (building materials); it has joint
ventures with Kobe Steel of Japan (KSL Alcoa) and Sam Sun Industrial
of Korea (Hoover's Handbook of American Business 1993, p. 100).
Alcoa is involved in bauxite mining in Suriname, Australia, Brazil,
Jamaica, and Republic of Guinea; fabricating plants in Australia
and Brazil; and alumina and/or chemical production facilities
in Brazil, Jamaica, and Suriname.
Alcoa has been operating in Suriname since the early 20th century;
it owns Suriname Aluminum Co. (SURALCO), which has a smelter at
Paranam, Suriname. Power is supplied by the Afobaka dam, which
was built by Suralco, and closed in 1964, creating a 650 square
mile reservior. The International Society for the Protection of
Animals held its "Operation Gwamba" to rescue animals
threatened by the flooding (Operation Gwamba: the Story of Rescuing
10,000 Animals from Certain death in a South American Rain Forest,
by the ISPA, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1967; and the Seattle Times,
June 2, 1989, p.A4).
Suriname Aluminum bauxite projects (with Billiton and Shell near
the Trombetas River in Para, and on Sao Luis Island) in Brazil
are part of the Grand Carajas project (The Ecologist 19(6): 219-224
(1989). Communities in the Trombetas basin succeeded in delaying
licensing of that mine, which would involve the construction of
ten dams on the river, until Alcoa demarcates land titled to the
blacks. The head of Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA was fired
after her refusal to allow Alcoa to clearcut part of the Saraca-Taquera
National Forest, where the mine is to be located (World Rivers
Review, Nov/Dec 1991, p.4; and the International Rivers Network's
Special Briefing, Jan. 1992).
Alcoa will spend more than $50 million over eight years to clean
up its Massena smelter in New York; work includes disposal of
treated soil and sludge, landfill and lagoon closure, and the
restoration of streams and wetlands (Mining Magazine, Aug. 1991,
p.103).
Alcoa of Australia Ltd.'s chairman, Arvi Parbo, is also chairman
of Western Mining Corp. Holdings Ltd. ("Miners see profits
in foreign markets," Associated Press, Dec. 6, 1992).
See Who Owns the Earth, by James Ridgeway.
ALL BEST CORPORATION
Taiwan
Furniture manufacturer operating in Kuantan, Malaysia since 1991;
the furniture is finished in Taiwan and marketed worldwide, some
of it under its Datong brandname; its Malaysian operations are
expected to expand (Asian Timber, Mar. 1992, p. 10).
ALLIED CHEMICAL
See Who Owns the Earth, by James Ridgeway.
ALLIED NUCLEAR SERVICES
Barnwell Nuclear Fuel Plant near Savannah River Plant in South
Carolina, for plutonium and uranium recovery from spent fuel (Carothers,
Andre. The Death of Ellenton: Plutonium, Politics, and the State
of South Carolina. Greenpeace magazine v. 13 n. 3).
ALLIED ORDNANCE
Allied Ordnance, a joint venture between Nobel Industries and
Shengli Holding (Singapore), is one of the major suppliers of
weapons to SLORC, the military regime conrolling Burma (Burma
Issues, Oct. 1993, p. 3).
ALLIED QUEENSLAND COALFIELDS LTD.
Australia
"Allied Indo Coal" export contract; adjacent to the
Indonesian government's Ombilin mine (Mining Magazine, Mar. 1992,
p.149).
ALLIED-SIGNAL
Columbia Road & Park Ave.
Morristown NJ 07962
201-455-2000
Aerospace, automotive, and chemicals giant. U.S. government accounts
for 42 percent of its aerospace revenue. World leader in the production
of hydrofluoric acid (for refrigerants). Owns 39 percent of oil
and gas producer Union Texas. Bought Fisher Scientific Company
in 1981 and Bendix in 1983. Owns Autolite spark plugs, Bendix
brakes, and Fram auto filters. Had sales of $12 billion in 1990
(Hoover's Handbook of American Business 1992 (p.86).
The Council on Economic Priorities produced an environmental report
on Allied-Signal in 1991-92 ($20 from CEP, 30 Irving Place, New
York NY 10003, 1-800-729-4237).
Signed preliminary agreement with Russia to reprocess nuclear
weapons plutonium into civilian reactor fuel (William J. Broad,
New York Times, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 22, 1992).
ALPAC see Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries
ALPART
Joint venture in Jamaican bauxite; involves Kaiser Aluminum, Reynolds
Metals, Anaconda, and Norsk Hydro. Kaiser and Norsk Hydro (formerly
W.R. Grace) got a $50 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Overseas
Private Investment Corporation (The OPIC: a Study in Political
Risk, Praeger, 1979, p. 13-14; and in OPIC's Update: OPIC Financing
in the Caribbean and Central America 1990-1991).
ALTAI DAM see Katun River Dam
AMAX see Cyprus Amax Minerals
200 Park Ave.
New York NY 10166
212-573-8800
"American Metal," founded in 1887 by German investors.
The company severed ties with Germany during World War I. Now
owns Alumax (aluminum); AMAX Energy (including AMAX Coal, the
third largest producer of coal in the U.S., and AMAX Oil &
Gas, which explores in 31 states); three quarters of AMAX Gold
(including the Fort Knox mine in Alaska and open-pit gold mining
in Nevada; a third of Aztec Mining (Australia); Bandgap Technology;
a quarter of BCL (Botswana nickel and copper); half of Canada
Tungsten Mining; Climax Metals (including Climax Molybdenum, the
world's largest producer); 40 percent of Compania Fresnillo and
Zimapan (Mexico metals mining companies). AMAX also operates in
New Zealand and Europe (Hoover's Handbook of American Business
1993, p. 102).
AMAX owns the Climax mine near Leadville, Colorado; AMAX discovered
molybdenum there, and is proud of the fact that it invented a
market for the mineral. Some 460 million tons of ore have been
extracted; another 150 million are anticipated before the mine
is depleted. Spring runoff contaminated with heavy metals is permitted
by the State of Colorado; the runoff goes to the Dillion Reservoir,
used by Denver for drinking water. There have been over a hundred
permit violations (1977-1988), according to the Nova television
program "Poison in the Rockies," which cited a 1988
Colorado Dept. of Health report.
Sold its Australian gold mines (1980s).
In 1990, there was a bidding war against Hanson for Peabody Coal
(Hanson won).
In the 1980's, Chevron (then Standard Oil of California) controlled
some 22 percent of AMAX (Time, Mar. 23, 1981, p. 72).
Meadowlark Farms is an Amax subsidiary working on coal mine reclamation
in the Gillette, Wyoming area (Jules Loh, AP, Seattle Times, June
28, 1992).
AMCEL
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Provides wood chips. Has a 205,000-acre Caribbean pine plantation
established in the early 1980s near Amapa, Brazil. In August 1993,
Amcel sent a shipload of chips to Longview, Washington, as a test
for American mills; companies participating in the trial, believed
to be the first chips imported from South America, include Weyerhaeuser,
Boise Cascade, Longview Fibre, and James River Corporation (Oregonian,
Aug. 27, 1993, p. E1; and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Aug. 30,
1993, p. B4).
AMERADA HESS
2 Stephen Street
London W1P 1PL
England
01-636-7766
Aberdeen AB1 4LE
Scotland
0224-243000
Amerada Minerals Corporation
700-9 Avenue Southwest
Calgary, Alberta T2P 4B3
Canada
403-267-6910
Amerada Minerals has plants in Hanna, Bluffton, and Alta, Alberta.
Amerada was begun by Pearson in the 1920s.
AMERICAN BARRICK RESOURCES
Toronto, ON
Canada
Until 1985, Barrick was a small gold producer with profits of
$7 million. That year, Barrick "purchased" the Goldstrike
Mine in northern Nevada; the company will pay the U.S. government
$5,190 for 1,038 acres of land containing $8 billion worth of
gold. By 1993 Barrick's profits were $175 million, and the Goldstrike
was being billed as North America's richest gold mine (see "The
Great Gold Heist" by Thomas J. Hilliard, in Clementine: the
Journal of Responsible Mineral Development, Spring/Summer 1993,
p.9-10). The estimates as to the worth of Goldstrike vary; by
May 1994, when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed Barrick's
mineral patents, it was estimated that Barrick was getting $10
billion worth of gold for less than $10,000. Babbitt was quoted
as saying that "it's the biggest gold heist since the days
of Butch Cassidy. But these folks stole it fair and square. The
West has long been settled but the giveaway continues unabated."
The Goldstrike operation is dewatering aquifers along the Humboldt
River, having lowered the water table under the mine by some 1,200
feet. The groundwater deficit will be filled by water from the
Humboldt, drawing as much as two-thirds of its flow (High Country
News, May 30, 1994, p. 5; and June 13, 1994, p. 6, citing University
of Nevada hydologist Tom Myers' The Hydrologic Effects of Open
Pit Gold MIning in the Humboldt River Drainage, published by the
Sierra Club, PO Box 8096, Reno NV 89507-8096).
The Mineral Policy Center, publisher of Clementine, has an Environmental
Report Card on American Barrick; write to the Center, Room 550,
1325 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC 20005.
AMERICAN CYANAMID
One Cyanamid Plaza
Wayne NJ 07470
201-831-2000
Produces or markets in 135 countries (Hoover's Handbook of American
Business 1993, p.106).
The Council on Economic Priorities produced an environmental report
on American Cyanamid in 1991-92 ($20 from CEP, 30 Irving Place,
New York NY 10003, 1-800-729-4237).
Owns Lederle Labs (cancer business); acquiring 53 percent of Immunex;
has a drug plant in Puerto Rico (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Mar.
19, 1993, p.E1).
With Freeport McMoRan, owns Brewster Phosphates (Who Owns the
Earth, by James Ridgeway).
AMERICAN EXPRESS (AmEx)
American Express Tower
World Financial Center
New York NY 10285
212-640-2000
Begun before the Civil War as a delivery service. American Express
is now a world leader in investment services (42 percent of its
1991 sales of nearly $26 billion); it is also involved in travel
services (38 percent of sales), financial services (10 percent);
international banking (40 countries), and information services
(cable TV through its share of Warner Amex Cable, hospital billing,
telemarketing, and data management). Its subsidiaries include
AMEX Life Insurance, First Data Corporation, IDS Financial Services,
Lehman Brothers, Shearson Lehman, Atlanta magazine, Food &
Wine Magazine, and Travel & Leisure Magazine. Eighty percent
of 1991 sales were in the United States, but nearly half its profits
were from overseas. AmEx has 111,000 employees in 2,700 offices
in 160 countries (Hoover's Handbook of American Business 1993,
p. 108, Everybody's Business, 1980, and Everybody's Business,
1990).
In 1992, AmEx agreed to the New York State Attorney General's
pressure to reveal to its cardholders that the company compiles
information about their spending habits and sells it to merchants
(Hoover's Handbook of American Business 1993, p. 108).
AmEx is involved in Third World debt "relief," including
a $5.6 million debt for nature trade involving The Nature Conservancy
in Costa Rica, a $3.6 million trade in Ecuador, and another in
Jamaica (see page 198 in Business in the Rainforests: Corporations,
Deforestation and Sustainability, by Conrad MacKerron; Investor
Responsibility Research Center, Washington DC, 1993).
Involved in trade "liberalization," through the business
lobby Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) Coalition.
AmEx has received assistance from the U.S. OPIC, for its banking
operations in Turkey, according to OPIC's 1991 Annual Report.
In 1991, AmEx had 40,000 cardholders in Indonesia, out a 32 million
American Express cards worldwide (Wall Street Journal, Mar. 25,
1993, p. A1).
There are at least two boycotts against American Express, according
to the Summer 1994 Boycott Quarterly: one called by the Grizzly
Bear Task Force and Rocky Mountain Earth First!, for AmEx's financing
of a ski resort in bear habitat in Colorado; contact the GBTF
at PO Box 6151, Bozeman MT 59715 or EF! at PO Box 1166, Boulder
CO 30306. Another boycott has been called by People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals because of the promotion and sale of fur
coats through AmEx's catalogues; contact PETA at PO Box 42516,
Washington DC 20015-0516.
American Express was profiled in Brian Ahlberg's "American
Express: The Stateless Corporation" in the Multinational
Monitor (Nov. 1990, p.29-32).
AMERICAN FINANCIAL CORP.
One East Fourth St.
Cincinnati OH 45202
513-579-2121
Diversified holding company; the eighth-largest private company
in the U.S. in 1990. Its holdings are from insurance premiums:
includes a majority of Chiquita, a minority of Penn Central Railroad,
Charter Co. petroleum marketing, and radio and TV stations. 1990
sales of $8 billion (half of it in food products, a quarter in
insurance), and a debt ratio of 91 percent (Hoover's Handbook
of American Business 1992, p.97).
AMERICAN HARDWOODS, INC.
12430 SW Hemian Rd.
Tualatin, OR 97062
503-692-4000
Sells plywood and veneer made of mahogany, rosewood, and teak
(Directory of the Forest Products Industry, 1988).
AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS CORP.
685 Third Ave.
New York NY 10017
212-878-5000
"A conglomeration of almost 200 companies which market hundreds
of products ranging from heart medicine to spaghetti" (David
Lap, "American Home Products moves abroad," Multinational
Monitor, April 1991, p.21-24).
Brandnames include Advil, Anacin, Dristan, Premarin, Preparation
H, Robitussin, Jiffy Pop, Chef Boyardee, Norplant, Chap Stick
(Hoover's Handbook of American Buisness 1992).
Operates in 18 countries, sells in 140 countries. Bought 30 food
and drug companies in the 1930s depression. Uses division names
(A.H. Robins, Whitehall Labs, etc.), thus making itself unknown
to the average consumer. Sold its South African businesses in
1989 (Hoover's Handbook of American Buisness 1992).
AHP's Whitehall plant in Elkhart, Indiana was closed in 1990 and
the facility was moved to Guayama, Puerto Rico, earning AHP a
spot in "Corporate Crime & Violence in Review" (Multinational
Monitor, Dec. 1991, p.11).
AMERICAN NUCLEAR CORPORATION
550 N. Poplar St., Suite 6
Casper WY 82602
307-265-7912
Holds uranium, radium, and vanadium ores which it intends to develop.
Has only 4 employees (Worldscope 1992).
AMERICAN TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH (AT&T)
32 Avenue of the Americas
New York NY 10013
tel: 212-605-5500
fax: 212-308-1820
Has a 39 percent stake in the Ukraine's telephone agency (Wall
Street Journal, Jan. 23, 1992, p. B1).