The Aluminum Association grows with three new member companies

The Aluminum Association, Arlington, Virginia, has announced the addition of three new member companies: Cerro Wire LLC, Granges Americas Inc. and Reynolds Consumer Products. The companies join the association as producer members, representing firms that make or fabricate aluminum products. 

In addition to these new member companies, the association has added Matt Aboud, president of Hydro Aluminum North America, as a member of The Aluminum Association’s executive committee, a subset of the board of directors which provides strategic guidance directing all of its programs and activities.

“As we continue to chart a sustainable course for the domestic aluminum industry, we’re pleased to bring in these new voices to help us tell the industry’s story,” says Garney Scott, president and CEO of Scepter and chairman of The Aluminum Association. “During a time of both opportunity and challenge for aluminum producers everywhere, we’ll work with these new members to help move the industry forward.”

New companies include:

• Cerro Wire LLC, which is headquartered in Hartselle, Alabama, and has supplied electrical building wire to distributors and retail outlets throughout North America for commercial, industrial and residential use for more than 90 years. Cerro Wire has four manufacturing locations and a nationwide network of manufacturer’s representatives. 
• Gränges Americas Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Swedish-based Gränges AB, based in Franklin, Tennessee. Gränges Americas has operations located in Huntingdon, Tennessee; Salisbury, North Carolina; and Newport, Arkansas. The company produces foil and other light gauge aluminum products for stationary and automotive heat exchangers, packaging and transformers. 
• Reynolds Consumer Products, which is headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, is a consumer packaged goods company that provides household essentials, including Reynolds Wrap, Alcan and Diamond brand aluminum foil. The company’s products are available in the U.S. and Canada at mass merchants, grocers and other retail stores and in approximately 100 countries throughout the world.

The new member additions come at a time of continued domestic demand growth for aluminum, says the association.

The Aluminum Association says according to the latest industry data, the North American aluminum industry shipped nearly 26 billion pounds of aluminum in 2015, the most since 2007. Since 2013, member companies have announced domestic plant expansions and planned investment totaling more than $2.6 billion to meet anticipated demand growth for aluminum in the automotive sector as automakers strive to make better-performing and more fuel-efficient vehicles. 

However, challenges remain, the association says, particularly with an oversupply of aluminum coming from China. Since the beginning of 2015, eight U.S.-based aluminum smelters have curtailed or closed, representing 60 percent of U.S. primary aluminum capacity. A recently released economic impact report found that while overall employment in the U.S. aluminum business is up slightly, employment in the upstream segment has dropped dramatically—from more than 12,000 primary production and alumina refining jobs in 2013 to around 5,000 today—a near 60 percent drop in three years. 

The Aluminum Association says it is committed to highlighting unfair and unsustainable trade practices to ensure the continued health of the entire domestic aluminum value chain. Recent actions include the initiation of an International Trade Commission investigation into the global marketplace, the launch of a new coalition—the Manufacturers for Trade Enforcement—and testimony on industry overcapacity in front of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce.