A global leader in aluminum rolling and recycling recently announced plans to build an approximately $330M automotive aluminum sheet manufacturing facility in Guthrie, Kentucky, that will include heat treatment and pre-treatment lines.
Novelis Inc., a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited, reports that the greenfield facility, which will prepare aluminum for use in vehicle parts such as body-in-white, hoods, doors, lift gates, and fenders, will have an annual capacity of 200,000 metric tons. The company expects to break ground in early spring, 2018, near Logan Aluminum Inc, a Novelis joint venture in Russellville, Kentucky, and create approximately 125 new jobs when it opens in 2020.
“Aluminum is a growing material of choice for the automotive industry worldwide as auto manufacturers continue to demand more and more aluminum to produce lighter, safer and stronger cars, trucks and SUVs,” said Steve Fisher, president and CEO, Novelis, Inc.
Just days following this announcement, Novelis reported that it signed a binding agreement to acquire operating facilities and manufacturing assets at its Sierre plant in Switzerland that has historically been leased. The nearly $250M acquisition from Constellium, which is co-located on the site, will allow Novelis to establish a joint venture with Constellium to administer shared infrastructure activities; Novelis’s fully integrated system covers the entire process from casting to finishing, including hot and cold rolling mills and a state-of-the-art continuous annealing line for automotive sheet.
