Hydro Aluminum Expands North American Remelt Capacity Again

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Hydro Aluminum North America (Linthicum Heights, Maryland), a subsidiary of Norsk Hydro ASA (NYSE:NHY) (Oslo, Norway), is in the midst of a series of expansions and improvements at its secondary aluminum smelters. Industrialinfo.com had reported in June of 2002 that Hydro Aluminum had cancelled plans for its third grassroot secondary aluminum smelter as it digested the start-up of the Commerce smelter and the acquisition of VAW. The company has now approved a series of capital projects, concentrating on upgrading former VAW facilities and performing incremental capacity increases at its Ellenville, New York, Monett, Missouri, and St. Augustine Florida plants.

The Monett plant is almost complete with an upgrade to its casting system. The last piece of equipment is scheduled to be installed in June 2003. Monett will have a capacity in the 90,000 ton per year range upon completion of the upgrade.

Hydro Aluminum is investing $11 million over the next two years to completely revamp its cast house at its plant located in Ellenville, New York. The company is currently reviewing mechanical and electrical contractors for the project. Phase I installation will occur in October of 2003, and Phase 2 will occur during the summer of 2004. When the project is complete Ellenville will have a remelt capacity of about 60,000 Tons/year.

The expansion will give Hydro Aluminum North America over 400,000 tons of secondary aluminum billet capacity per year.

Look for Hydro Aluminum to expand its extrusion business in the future. Hydro Aluminum has fifteen aluminum extrusion and remelt plants in the U.S.

Click on the image at right to view a listing of Hydro Aluminum North American Plants.