Explosion idles Hydro remelt facility in Kentucky

An explosion in a melting furnace at the Hydro aluminum remelt and recycling plant in Henderson, Kentucky, Tuesday, Jan. 22, has rendered the plant “temporarily unable to produce cast house products,” according to the firm. A news release from Norway-based Hydro says no workers were injured in the explosion, but the melting furnace has been damaged.

The company has stated that customer disruption “will be very limited” in the short term, “However, it is still unclear how many weeks the plant will remain out of operation.”

Hydro cites what it calls a large production network in the United States that is working to secure metal from other sources so the impact on its customers “will be as limited as possible.” The company also says it does not yet know the cause of the explosion, but it is “mobilizing internal resources to form an investigation team.”

Hydro’s remelt and recycling plant in Henderson has a production capacity of 90,000 metric tons per year (about 185 million pounds). The plant produces extrusion ingot from extrusion process scrap and from postconsumer scrap, selling its remelt product mainly to the aluminum extrusion sector in the U.S. Midwest.