Aluminum rolling and recycling specialist Novelis has broken ground on a new $300-million automotive aluminum sheet manufacturing facility in Guthrie, Kentucky. The plant, with an annual nameplate capacity of 200,000 metric tons, will begin producing aluminum in 2020.

The facility will include heat treatment and pre-treatment lines, which prepare aluminum for use in vehicle parts such as body-in-white, hoods, doors, lift gates and fenders.
Automakers are widely expected to increase the adoption of high-strength, lightweight aluminum in new vehicles over the next decade. Novelis claims to be the only aluminum supplier with automotive sheet production capability in all three major auto-producing regions: Asia, Europe and North America.

“The increased adoption of aluminum in cars, trucks and SUVs, coupled with more automotive manufacturing plants in the southeast, makes Guthrie a strategic location to serve our customers,” said Novelis CEO Steve Fisher.

Source Novelis via Green Car Congress