Aluminum manufacturer Arconic Corporation on Thursday announced that it had transferred roughly $1 billion in pension plan obligations to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, joining a number of other U.S. companies that have recently offloaded pension liabilities to insurers. The announcement comes just a few months after one of the busiest quarters for pension risk transfer deals in the last decade, and points to continued appetite among corporate pensions for annuity buyouts. This latest group annuity contract marks Arconic’s third pension risk transfer transaction in the past year, according to a Pensions & Investments report. Arconic said Thursday that the deal entails the transfer of pension liabilities for around 8,400 retirees and benefices to MassMutual.