MetalX selects site for aluminum recycling campus

MetalX LLC, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has selected a 190-acre site in Defiance, Ohio, for its previously announced aluminum recycling campus, the plans for which include an aluminum slab manufacturing plant, a scrap shredding and advanced sortation facility and a dedicated logistics hub.

In April of last year, the company announced plans to work with Louisville, Kentucky-based Manna Capital Partners to build a recycled-content aluminum rolling slab facility in the Great Lakes region, saying more than $200 million would be invested into what they call a new greenfield aluminum rolling slab facility to be located in northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio or southern Michigan.

According to JobsOhio, the investment will total $253 million, and MetalX has committed to creating 180 jobs at the site.

The slab casting facility will produce 100,000 to 120,000 metric tons per year initially, though it will have the ability to produce as much as 200,000 metric tons per year of ultra-low carbon aluminum rolling slab, prioritizing alloys for the beverage, packaging and auto industries. It will feature higher recycled content than otherwise available in the market, according to the company.

The advanced scrap processing operation, expanding from MetalX's Indiana base, will enhance separation and shredding for use at the slab facility and by third-party aluminum consumers. It will process up to 300 million pounds per year of material, with roughly 25 percent of the output slated for the slab facility with the rest slated for other consumers. Both facilities are expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2027.

“This is an outstanding site and met all key criteria for the project, including proximity to sources of scrap supply; ample power, gas, water and other utilities; main-line rail service; access to major highways; and, most importantly, a solid workforce environment,” MetalX CEO Danny Rifkin says. “We are excited to expand into Ohio and are looking forward to a continued partnership with the economic development groups who helped us identify and select this site and have provided invaluable guidance through the entire process. They have all been great to work with.”

Erika Willitzer, Defiance County Economic Development executive director, says, “We are ecstatic MetalX chose Defiance County. We know this new investment is going to have a transformative impact on our local families and northwest Ohio for generations to come.”

“MetalX had many options when choosing where to build its newest facility and chose Ohio," JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef says. "The investment will come on a readily developable site with critical access to rail that will bring 180 new jobs to Defiance County.”

MetalX was founded in 2012 by Danny and Neal Rifkin, third- and fourth-generation members of the Rifkin family, which founded OmniSource before selling that company to Steel Dynamics Inc. With the sale of its ferrous processing business to BlueScope in late 2021, MetalX changed its focus to processing nonferrous scrap and providing consulting and management services. It also is engaged in applying new technologies for aluminum and copper recycling.

In mid-2022, MetalX acquired the assets and business of SRT Aluminum in Wabash, Indiana, a secondary aluminum melting operation that produces specification remelt scrap ingot (RSI) in sow and ingot form using scrap. MetalX renamed the business MetalX Aluminum Conversions LLC.

In 2016, MetalX completed the acquisition of the assets and business of Metal Shred Industries LLC (MSI), an aluminum scrap toll processor located in Kendallville, Indiana, retiring the MSI name.

The former MSI was founded in 2006 as an affiliate of Metropolitan Alloys to shred aluminum scrap on a toll basis for a variety of customers in the aluminum sector. At the time of the purchase, MetalX said the company designed and operates a “unique shredding and separation system that recovers and returns high-quality shredded aluminum products to its customers.”