Hydro raises roof on Michigan facility

Norway-based aluminum producer Hydro has celebrated the roof installation of the main buildings at its new $150 million recycled-content aluminum plant in Cassopolis, Michigan. The production facility is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of this year.

The construction milestone was marked with a traditional Norwegian ceremony called “kranselag,” where builders celebrate the installation of the last beam in a new building. This is marked by the carpenters putting up a wreath or small tree on the ridge of a structure once the roof is installed.

“I would like to say thank you to the construction team and local stakeholders for helping us achieve this production milestone,” says Ingrid Guddal, head of recycling at the Hydro Aluminum Metal business unit.

“We are grateful for the warm welcome we have received in Cassopolis and look forward to continuing work with the local community to bring stable jobs, career opportunities as well as investing in local education to bring forth the next generation of Hydro employees. Let’s continue the great progress and ensure a safe installation and startup of the plant,”

Hydro calls the facility “a key stepping stone” in its ambition to double the volume of what it considers postconsumer aluminum scrap it uses by 2025.

In March, Hydro began recruiting for positions in production, process, administration and materials management at the facility. Applications also are open for production operators.

“We are looking for people who want to play an important part in Hydro’s exciting recycling growth agenda,” Guddal says. “With Hydro, you will not only get a job but also a career opportunity where you can make a difference, by being part of a high-performing team who puts safety first, embodies an improvement culture and lives the Hydro values of ‘Care, Courage and Collaboration.’”

The company says applications for the aluminum it will produce in Cassopolis include critical automotive applications as well as other transportation uses, consumer and building system applications. The automotive applications include some in electric vehicle (EV) production.

“We are seeing increasing interest in terms of low-carbon products and sustainability, where automotive companies look for more low-carbon materials to put into their vehicles and make their cars more sustainable,” Guddal says. “We are here to serve this growing demand by providing our industry-leading proprietary alloys for more critical automotive applications from Cassopolis.”

The Hydro Cassopolis recycling plant has been designed to produce 120,000 tons of recycled-content aluminum extrusion ingot per year. It also will be the first large-scale producer of Hydro Circal product in North America, the company says.

Hydro Circal aluminum extrusion ingot contains at least 75 percent scrap, certified by third-party auditors as being “postconsumer” as having a low carbon footprint, according to Hydro. The company has produced Hydro Circal in Europe for several years, and many of its recycling facilities in Europe are certified to produce Hydro Circal.

“Cassopolis is an ideal fit for us," Eivind Kallevik, executive vice president of Hyrdo Aluminum Metal, tells Recycling Today. "Michigan is the heartland of the U.S. automotive industry, housing around 90 percent of the top 100 automotive suppliers in the country. The Cassopolis plant meets an increasing market demand as manufacturers transition to electric vehicles while bringing the next generation of recycling technology and local jobs. Cassopolis was selected because of its access to this market, availability of postconsumer scrap to produce Circal and the community’s openness to Hydro investing in the area. Our closest existing plant is one of Hydro Extrusion’s facilities, which is located in Elkhart, Indiana, approximately 20 miles to the south. We also have an R&D and testing facility just outside of Holland, Michigan.”

Kallevik says Norsk Hydro also is experiencing increasing demand for low-carbon and recycled aluminum in various market segments.

“Chief among these is the automotive market, where most [original equipment manufacturers] have concrete goals for lowering the carbon footprint of the vehicles they produce, both in the production and use phases," he says. "Low-carbon aluminum products are a natural fit to meet these requirements. Aluminum plays a significant role in the lightweighting of electric and hybrid vehicles, as cars need less electricity and fewer or smaller batteries to travel the same distances. … A number of automotive industry customers have also expressed interest in Hydro Circal, and we look forward to supplying forward-leaning customers with this cutting-edge material.”