Constellium to increase recycled-content aluminum casting capacity in Alabama

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has selected a Constellium facility in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, for an investment of $23 million under Title III of the Defense Production Act to rebuild its direct chill aluminum casting center.

Constellium, a Paris-based producer of rolled and extruded aluminum products for the aerospace, automotive, defense, packaging and transportation sectors, plans to use the funds to install the latest casting equipment on the site of a dismantled casting center.

The installation is expected to add up to 300 million pounds of annual casting capacity, which means the plant expects to increase its recycled aluminum inputs, reduce its use of primary metal and provide the U.S. industrial base an additional, self-reliant, domestic source of supply for aluminum rolling ingot.

The DOD awarded the funding via the Defense Production Act Investments (DPAI) Program. DPAI is overseen by the Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Program (MCEIP) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy.

Constellium Muscle Shoals is a major aluminum sheet supplier for the packaging and automotive markets. The plant can produce more than 1 billion pounds per year of finished aluminum coils. Muscle Shoals also operates a recycling center that can recycle the equivalent of 20 billion aluminum cans per year.

A representative for Constellium tells Recycling Today the company does not disclose its external scrap rate but adds that the new technologies to be used in Muscle Shoals will allow Constellium to produce new alloy grades, but it won’t expand the scrap grades it purchases as a result.

The company says domestic U.S. capacity to cast rolling ingot has lagged growing demand for flat-rolled aluminum products across multiple manufacturing industries, forcing U.S. rolling mills to rely on imported slab to meet customer demand. Flat-rolled aluminum products, including sheet and plate, are critical material inputs for the defense, aerospace, automotive, packaging and transportation industries.

The expected additional domestic casting capacity enabled by this joint effort with the DoD will help secure the capacity to supply rolling ingot to U.S. rolling mills and provide a vital surge capacity to the DoD if needed to support U.S. security commitments around the globe, Constellium says.

“This investment under the Defense Production Act will enable our industry to meet the rapidly increasing demand for the aluminum products needed not only for our national security but also necessary for the overall U.S. manufacturing sector and a healthy economy,” says Buddy Stemple, president of Constellium Muscle Shoals. “We are very excited to have this opportunity to partner with the DoD to help strengthen our industrial base.”

This is the second time in five years Constellium has received DoD funding. In 2019, the company's Ravenswood, West Virginia, facility was awarded a grant of nearly $9.5 million from the DOD to increase the throughput, quality and performance of the cold-rolled aluminum produced at that plant.