$2.5B Aluminum Recycling Plant Breaks Ground in Alabama

Novelis Bay Minette aluminum recycling facility. Image courtesy of Novelis

Novelis Inc., the world’s largest recycler of aluminum, has broken ground and begun construction on a $2.5 billion low-carbon recycling and rolling plant in Bay Minette, Ala.

The facility will have an initial 600,000 tons of finished aluminum goods capacity per year focused on the beverage container market, with flexibility for automotive production. It also adds a new recycling center for beverage cans, increasing the company’s recycling capacity by 15 billion cans per year when fully operational.

The project reportedly will be the first fully integrated aluminum facility built in the U.S. in almost 40 years.

Baldwin County, of which Bay Minette is the county seat, is part of the small portion of Alabama that faces the Gulf of Mexico and also borders the east side of Mobile Bay.

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Over the next 3 months, Novelis will construct two new roadways on the site and expand the utility infrastructure necessary to begin building construction. The facility’s commissioning is scheduled for mid-2025.

In a prepared statement, Novelis President & CEO Steve Fisher pointed out the significance of making the announcement on the first Friday in October, National Manufacturing Day.

Big parcel, long plans

In what turned out to be a successful long-term play, a dozen years ago the Baldwin County Commission acquired 3,000 acres for a total of $36 million and named it the South Alabama Mega Site, hoping to draw manufacturing to the area, according to a local news outlet. Novelis will now be the site’s anchor tenant, occupying about 2,000 of the 3,000 acres. The South Alabama Mega Site is at Highway 287 and I-65, 32 miles from the Port of Mobile.

AL.com reported on the very substantial state and local governmental support the project has received or will receive:

• About $135.3 million in tax breaks and credits from the State of Alabama.
• More than $123 million in tax abatements, infrastructure improvement and economic incentives from Baldwin County.
• Further incentives, including $5 million cash, from the City of Bay Minette.

The website noted that the latter figure is in comparison to the city’s annual overall budget of around $11.6 million and that the cash incentive will therefore be paid out over a period of time.

Novelis is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Ltd. and the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai.