Finance
Business
Constellium announced today that its facility in Muscle Shoals, Alabama has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for an investment of $23 million under Title III, Defense Production Act to rebuild its Direct Chill aluminium casting center.
The funding was awarded 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 will use the funds to install state-of-the-art casting equipment on the site of a dismantled casting center intended to add up to 300 million pounds of annual casting capacity. With this added capacity, the plant expects to increase its recycled input, reduce its use of primary metal, and provide the U.S. industrial base an additional, self-reliant, domestic source of supply for aluminium rolling ingot.
In recent years, domestic U.S. capacity to cast rolling ingot has lagged the growing demand for flat rolled aluminium products across multiple manufacturing industries, forcing U.S. rolling mills to rely on imported slab to meet customer demand. Flat rolled aluminium 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.
“This investment under the Defense Production Act will enable our industry to meet the rapidly increasing demand for the aluminium products needed not only for our national security, but also necessary for the overall U.S. manufacturing sector and a healthy economy,” commented 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.”
Constellium Muscle Shoals is a major aluminium sheet supplier for the packaging and automotive markets. The plant has the capacity to produce over 1 billion pounds per year of finished aluminium coils. Muscle Shoals also operates a world-class recycling center able to recycle the equivalent of 20 billion aluminium cans per year.