Century Aluminum to partner with MX Holdings on secondary billet production

St. Louis-based MX Holdings, the parent company of Metal Exchange and Pennex and a leading purchaser, processor and manufacturer of nonferrous metals, has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Chicago-based Century Aluminum Co., a global producer of primary aluminum, to establish a new joint venture to manufacture and market low-carbon secondary billet made using recycled content and produced with low-carbon processes.

According to a news release issued by Century Aluminum, the joint venture’s leadership team is considering several locations for the facility in the Ohio Valley region and expects to begin initial production in 2026, ultimately scaling output to 250 million pounds per year.

"Expansion into scrap recycling has been a long-term strategic focus for Century, but finding the right partners and opportunities are critical to the success of that strategy," says Matt Aboud, senior vice president of strategy and business development at Century. "We believe MX Holding’s scrap knowledge and extrusion expertise coupled with Century’s value-added-production capabilities are a compelling combination. By leveraging the strengths of Century and MX Holdings, we believe this joint venture can deliver a differentiated value proposition to customers looking for next-generation extrusion products and offer an alternative source in this fast-growing segment.

“Century is pleased to be partnering with another American company—MX Holdings—to establish a new entity serving the automotive and general extrusion industries."

“We are excited to embark on this endeavor with Century—a partner whose business strategy and expertise complement our own and whose team shares our values and people-centric culture,” MX Holdings CEO Matt Rohm adds. “By pairing our collective focus on customer service with a state-of-the-art facility, cutting-edge processes and advanced technical expertise, billet produced by the joint venture will not only deliver exceptional quality and performance but will enable our customers to achieve their sustainability objectives more effectively.”

He adds that MX Holdings plans to continue to produce billet at its existing, wholly owned Pennex facilities. “Each company will produce various alloys to meet specific customer needs.”

A number of investments in low-carbon aluminum production involving the use of scrap metal have been announced in recent years, including by Steel Dynamics Inc., Novelis, Hydro, Granges Americas and MetalX.

In the summer of 2022, London-based metals and mining company Rio Tinto announced an investment of $29 million to construct an aluminum recycling facility at its Arvida plant in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, allowing the company to expand its offering of low-carbon aluminum solutions for customers in the automotive, packaging and construction markets. Late last year, Rio Tinto finalized the transaction to take a 50 percent ownership stake in Matalco, one of the largest North American producers of recycled aluminum billet and slab products, operating six facilities in the U.S. and one in Canada.