Light metal, heavy changes

Lightweighting efforts in the automotive industry provide just one of many reasons why aluminum production has soared globally in the current century.

Producers of aluminum, however, seldom point to their own industry as prosperous. The financial crisis and subsequent recession in particular took a heavy toll on secondary aluminum producers that supply the construction and automotive industries.

Whether industry challenges or investment opportunities have been the cause, ownership changes among producers of secondary aluminum alloys, castings, remelt and deox products have been widespread in the previous decade and a half.

Among the 20th century company names no longer found on our list of recycled-content aluminum producers found on pages 100 and 101 are Wabash Alloys, Alcan, Ormet Corp. and Nichols Aluminum. Many of the facilities once operated by these and other vanished companies remain productive under different names, while in some cases facilities have been shuttered and dismantled.

In testimony of the overall demand for aluminum, Recycling Today has been able to identify 126 facilities where sizable amounts of aluminum scrap are melted to create alloyed ingots, extrusions or other types of aluminum. (Doubtless other facilities belong on this list, and if you know of one, please email btaylor@gie.net.)

Among producers operating several such facilities, one of them carries a name created in early 2015. Real Alloy was the name introduced in March 2015 when Signature Group Holdings purchased the recycling and specification alloys assets of Cleveland-based Aleris International Inc. Real Alloy has 13 locations on our list.

Another relatively new name is Sapa Extrusions, whose ownership is split between Norsk Hydro and the Orkla Group, both based in Norway. Sapa now operates facilities in several U.S. states (and one in Canada), most of them acquired in 2009, that convert aluminum scrap into extruded aluminum shapes and products.

Companies engaged in primary aluminum production continue to have a presence on the list, with many committed to using more scrap as part of portfolio diversification or sustainability initiatives.

Although the Alcan name has disappeared from North America’s aluminum scene, its successor company, Novelis, Atlanta, has committed to greatly increase its melting of used beverage containers (UBCs) and other forms of aluminum scrap. Likewise, Alcoa Inc., Pittsburgh, continues to melt scrap at several of its facilities in the United States.