Construction for Aluminum Dynamics’ $2.5 billion aluminum flat-rolled mill is well on track to meet its summer 2025 opening, ADI Operations Manager Gregg Whigham told the Rotary Club of Columbus Tuesday.
The 2.3 million square-foot mill, which falls under Steel Dynamics’ umbrella, on Charleigh D. Ford Drive is the first aluminum rolling mill of this size built in the U.S. since World War II, he said.
“We’ve been blessed with just a great group of contractors that have been great to work with,” Whigham told club members during their weekly meeting at Lion Hills Center. “… So between their competencies that they bring (and) the great weather that we’ve had for construction over the last several months, we’re right on plan.”
Plans for the mill started in early 2022 with discussions between Steel Dynamics and the Golden Triangle Development LINK, though Whigham said SDI has been looking to expand for longer.
“Over the last 31 years, Steel Dynamics has had just tremendous growth,” Whigham said. “We’ve gotten to the point now, we’re looking to diversify and become a metals company. That’s how Aluminum Dynamics here in Columbus got started.”
The Columbus location, Whigham said, allows the company to be closer to its customers, particularly in the automotive industry.
“A lot of automotive manufacturers are moving towards the South, so that’s important for us,” he said. “And then there’s a number of green advantages for us here. The least of which is we’ll receive our electricity from the (Tennessee Valley Authority), and that’s some of the cleanest – from a green standpoint – electricity in the U.S., which is definitely of interest to us.”
Whigham said ADI will be serving three aluminum sheet markets out of the facility: aluminum food and beverage cans, automotives and common alloys or industrial products.
The manufacturing process doesn’t rely on raw materials that come out of the ground but rather recycling scrap metal. The facility will melt more than 2 billion pounds a year in scrap, he said.
“It’s all based on a very circular and recycle-friendly manufacturing process,” he said. “We’ll take aluminum scrap, we melt it and we filter it. Then we cast it. … That’s one of the great things about aluminum – it’s infinitely recyclable, so we turn that back into prime product for our customers.”
The entire facility site covers more than 2,000 acres with the top half housing a 1,200-acre “customer campus” reserved for 10 to 12 customer companies that will co-locate on the property. The customers on site would agree to buy a certain percentage of materials from ADI in return for preferential scheduling, free delivery and scrap collection.
Which customers will locate on the property, Whigham said, is still being decided.
“This is an invitation-only kind of opportunity,” he said. “… We do have a cadre of customers that buy steel and buy aluminum, so they would be prime candidates.”
Though the facility won’t be online until next year, Whigham said the site has already employed 230 employees. Full employment, which will come in about 18 months, will be 750 employees with an average annual salary of $93,000.
While there is a cost for carrying those employees so early in the construction process, Whigham said there’s a greater benefit for their learning.
“We believe that there is a tremendous amount of value for our employees to be a part of the construction process,” he said. “They’re working with the contractors. They’re assisting them. They’re learning the equipment from the ground up, and that’s education you can’t buy.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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