Hydro expanding aluminum casting capacity at Pennsylvania plant: company

Norsk Hydro will add over 50,000 mt/year of recycled aluminum casting capacity at its 240,000 mt/year Cressona, Pennsylvania, extrusion billet facility by late 2024 to increase the recycled content in its products, the company said Aug. 1.

"This investment will strengthen our ability to produce innovative alloys and offer our customers products with a high recycled content and lower carbon footprint," said Paul Warton, the executive vice president of Hydro's extrusion division, in a statement. "We anticipate strong demand for these locally supplied greener products in the future and are excited to help drive the circular economy in North America."

The NOK 500 million ($52 million) investment will allow the facility to increase its use of pre- and post-consumer aluminum scrap, leading to a 5% reduction in the average carbon footprint of its extrusion billet, the Norway-based aluminum producer added.

The Cressona facility remelts primary aluminum and aluminum scrap to cast extrusion billet. The facility is one of the largest of its kind in the world, according to Hydro's website.

Like Cressona, Hydro recently committed a similar investment at its extrusion billet casthouse in The Dalles, Oregon, where it is planning to add casting output with higher recycled aluminum content.

Hydro has also announced a slate of additional projects across its US footprint since 2021 to improve recycled aluminum usage and boost output. Specifically, the company plans to provide more aluminum to its US customers under its CIRCAL brand, which is produced using at least 75% recycled post-consumer scrap in its raw material mix and has a carbon emission footprint of about 2.3 kg CO2e/kg of aluminum.

This year, Hydro broke ground on a 130,000 mt/year extrusion billet facility in Cassopolis, Michigan, that will produce 40,000 mt/year of CIRCAL by 2023. This year, it also announced investments to add 4,000 mt/year of CIRCAL production at both its Commerce, Texas, and Henderson, Kentucky, aluminum remelt and billet casting plants(opens in a new tab), both of which have a 90,000 mt/year capacity.