In 1916, Chinese American mining engineer Kuo-Ching Li founded the company in New York state, under the name Wah Chang Trading Corporation. Wah Chang is Cantonese for "fortunate enterprise" or "great development". This expanded as an international tungsten ore and concentrate trading company. Li remained with the company until his death in 1961, serving as president until 1960 and then board chairman. In 1946, the company built a plant in Union City, New Jersey. In the 1950s, it was also operating tungsten mines in Calento, Nevada, and near Bishop, California. In 1953, Stephen W. H. Yih, who had a master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, was hired by Wah Chang in New York. Yih worked on the titanium project at the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Boulder City, Nevada. Within a year, high quality titanium was produced. In early 1956, the Atomic Energy Commission contracted with Wah Chang to run the U.S. Bureau of Mines zirconium plant in Albany, Oregon, to develop high-purity zirconium for use in the United States Navy's nuclear program. Wah Chang was privately owned by K. C. Li until 1967, when it was acquired by Teledyne, the main Albany plant becoming a subsidiary named Teledyne Wah Chang Albany, or TWCA. In 1966, Wah Chang had around 1,200 employees, in plants in Albany, Oregon; Glen Cove, New York; Huntsville, Alabama; and Texas City, Texas, and sales of $40.7 million. The Albany plant was by far the largest, and at the time of its sale to Teledyne, it accounted for around $20 million in annual revenue, with 860 employees at that location. The Alabama factory became a separate subsidiary named Teledyne Wah Chang Huntsville. In 1975, TWCA had 1,400 employees, and had $100 million in annual sales. The Millersburg plant was listed as a Superfund site in 1983, requiring environmental clean-up, which the company carried out over the following several years. After Teledyne merged with Allegheny Ludlum Corporation in 1996, to become Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, the company became ATI Wah Chang.
Wah Chang People
Edmund F. Baroch - Vice President of Teledyne Wah Chang in Albany, Oregon.
Kuo-Ching Li - Founder, President, and Chairman of Wah Chang.
Stephen W. H. Yih - Engineer who worked on the titanium project and produced high quality titanium.
Merger and Acquisition
1916 Kuo-Ching Li founded Wah Chang Trading Corporation in New York state.
1967 Acquired by Teledyne and became Teledyne Wah Chang Albany located in Albany, Oregon. It became a subsidiary of Teledyne.
Wah Chang's Alabama plant became Teledyne Wah Chang Huntsville, a subsidiary of Teledyne.
1996 Teledyne acquired by Allegheny Ludlum Corporation, which created parent company named Allegheny Technologies Incorporated. Teledyne Wah Chang became ATI Wah Chang.
2014 ATI Wah Chang renamed ATI Specialty Alloys and Components, a business unit of ATI.
ATI
In March 2014, it was renamed ATI Specialty Alloys and Components.
