Indiana-based steel and aluminum producer Steel Dynamics (SDI) plans to spend $200mn to build its recycled aluminum slab plant near its rolling mill in Columbus, Mississippi.
The facility will be constructed in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park in Lowndes County, local and state officials said on Tuesday. The Mississippi Development Authority will help improve direct road and rail infrastructure for the project, which also will be eligible for tax incentives through the state's Major Economic Impact Authority program.
Operations are scheduled to begin in the first half of 2027. The cast house will produce recycled slabs primarily from used beverage cans (UBC) that will support SDI's output of beverage can stock from Columbus.
SDI in June decided to relocate the plant to Mississippi from Benson, Arizona, following months of pushback from locals, environmental groups and state officials that delayed its construction.
Aluminum scrap dealers are hopeful that the facility will support higher prices for UBCs, as consumers have widened buying spreads to historical lows to mitigate sharp gains in the Midwest transaction price (MWTP) — against which UBCs are discounted — since the beginning of last year.
While all-in prices for UBCs are down by 4.9pc from 2 January 2025 to $1.04-1.08/lb as of Argus' latest assessment on Tuesday, buying spreads have fallen by 39 percentage points to 41.1-42.7pc of the MWTP in the same period. That matters as several market participants base contract terms off percentage discounts rather than a physical price to account for changes in underlying intrinsic values.
