Hydro to build second U.S. plant - Scrap Industry News - Hydro Aluminum to build plant in Commerce, Texas - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Recycling Today, Oct, 2001

Hydro Aluminum, Louisville, Ky., has announced plans to build its second aluminum recycling plant in the United States. The secondary billet plant will be built in Commerce, Texas. It will have an annual capacity of 90,000 metric tons.

The company is a division of Norsk Hydro, a Norway-based company. The parent company is the largest supplier of aluminum billet in the world.

The re-melt facility in Texas will be the second North American smelter for the company, with the first re-melt facility opening in Henderson, Ky., this past May. Hydro Aluminum has also purchased an existing smelter in Monett, Mo., from Wells Aluminum.

Hydro will invest $37 million in the new Texas plant. The company expects to begin construction this fall with completion by next November.

The Henderson and Commerce plants use a proprietary energy-saving process to affordably make primary-quality billets from clean, prompt grades of aluminum scrap.

The facility will provide product to aluminum consumers in the Southwest. End markets will be from transportation, as well as the building and construction industries.

Norsk Hydro presently has four plants in Europe producing 250,000 metric tons of aluminum billets per year. The company also has a fifth aluminum re-melt facility in Spain scheduled to open later this year. That facility will have an annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons.