Hydro Aluminum Starts Operations at Texas Plant

Hydro Aluminum North America, a unit of industrial group Norsk Hydro ASA, has begun production at its 90,000 metric tons-per-year aluminum remelt plant in Commerce, Texas, as it improves its competitive positioning in the light-metal business.

The Commerce scrap reprocessing plant, a $37 million investment, is part of Hydro Aluminum's long-range strategy to increase capacity in the North American market.

Hydro Aluminum’s parent company, Norsk Hydro, also announced its plan to sell its Flexible Packaging unit, part of its German aluminum unit VAW, to Canada's Alcan for around $346 million. The deal is part of its plan to exit non-core metals assets announced this year when Norsk Hydro bought VAW from German utility E.ON, making it the world's No. 3 aluminum producer.

Production at the Commerce plant started on Nov 15, two weeks earlier than previously expected, as Hydro Aluminum said it was making moves to streamline operations and to improve its competitive and economic position on the continent.

Hydro Aluminum now has a total U.S. remelt capacity of more than 400,000 metric tons, and has plants in Henderson, Kentucky; Monett, Missouri; Ellenville, New York; Phoenix, Arizona and St. Augustine, Florida.

The company is headquartered in Linthicum, Maryland, near Baltimore, where it will consolidate by January 1 its trading, recycling and commercial services with its metal products groups into a new Metal Product unit, designed to streamline operations and strengthen its sales organization.

At Commerce, production ramp-up is expected to take about 20 weeks to reach full capacity, Hydro said. The plant serves customers in the transportation and building and construction sectors in Texas.

Commerce is designed to produce primary-quality billet using 5 percent of the energy typically consumed in making primary aluminum at smelters. More than 40 people operate the plant and 30 to 40 trucks will be delivering scrap for remelting every day, it said.