Air Liquide Large Industries U.S. received a 2004 Supplier Excellence Award from Eastman Chemical Co., the fourth such award from Eastman that Air Liquide has won in the last five years. Eastman's Supplier Excellence Program award is based on a supplier's ability to meet the highest level of reliability and quality. Recipients are selected by virtue of their outstanding contributions in working to create value for the company. In addition to these standards, a company's corporate image and overall stewardship is considered as well as its history of service to its other customers. Air Liquide is one of more than 350 suppliers who were considered for this year's award and is one of the few who have been recognized as maintaining this high standard of service. Terry Begley, Eastman's vice president global supply chain and quality, commented, "Eastman strives to partner with suppliers who not only meet the basic requirements but are capable and willing to go beyond these and create sustainable value. It is these suppliers we recognize in our Supplier Excellence Program. Air Liquide has been one of our premier suppliers and has worked hard to earn the recognition awarded to them. Eastman thanks all of Air Liquide's dedicated employees for their commitment to the partnership."

Alcoa racked up some supplier awards recently. Its Automotive Castings business received the Best Supplier Award from Delphi's Energy & Chassis Division in Saginaw, Mich. AAC was commended for its customer responsiveness, proactive communications and continuous improvement efforts. AAC supplies Delphi with vacuum riserless and pressure riserless aluminum front and rear knuckles that are used on the suspension system of automobiles. VRC/PRC permanent mold casting is a superior technology developed by Alcoa that produces high-quality structurally focused castings.

Alcoa's North American Mill Products was named the Supplier of the Year by Tracker Marine Group, the largest aluminum boat manufacturer in the world, based in Springfield, Mo. and was also the recipient of the Quality Master Award from Nissan North America for the third year in the row, maintaining its top 10% global supplier status with the automaker.

American Honda Motor recently announced its Premier Partner Award recipients. President and CEO Koichi Kondo presented the award to 15 recipients selected from 51 suppliers nominated by American Honda associates nationwide.

Following are the 15 American Honda Premier Partner Award recipients for 2005:

• ADT Security Services of Torrance, Calif. for national corporate security services
• Air One International of Los Angeles, for product brochure storage and shipping
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway of Fort Worth, Tex. for railroad logistics services
• Data Linkage Software of Long Beach, Calif. for software and service
• Delome and Company of Redondo Beach, Calif. for producing printed public relations materials
• Gartner of Stamford, Conn. for information services consulting
• Insight Investments of Orange, Calif. for equipment procurement and leasing
• Interstate Battery System of America of Dallas, for automobile batteries
• ITresources of Buena Park, Calif. for designing a service Web portal
• IntraPromote of Stow, Ohio for search-engine optimization services
• Maritz of Torrance, Calif. for supporting sales and dealer incentive programs
• Northrop Grumman Information Technology of Calabasas, Calif. for PC services
• Pasha Group of Carson, Calif. for vehicle shipping in support of industry education
• Sinclair Printing of Los Angeles for consumer publication printing
• Urban Science Applications of Long Beach, Calif. for dealer network information and consulting services

The Premier Partner Awards were established in 1998 to recognize suppliers who embrace American Honda's philosophy of exceeding customer expectations. The award winners represent excellence in a variety of industries including automobile batteries, railway transportation, information technology services, marketing services and much more. "Honda's global success is directly related to our core philosophy of delivering the highest possible value to our customers through quality products and customer service," said Gary Kessler, American Honda's senior vice president of human resources and administration. "Today we acknowledge select suppliers who share in our philosophy and thank them for their dedication to American Honda's quality commitment."

YMC of Kyoto, Japan has received a 2005 Global Supplier Award from Eli Lilly and Co. The award is given to those companies who help Lilly create and sustain competitive advantage in the pharmaceutical marketplace. YMC is a manufacturer of bulk chromatographic packing materials for the high-performance liquid chromatography purification of biopharmaceutical compounds.