LOWNDES COUNTY – With shovels in hand, local, state and industry leaders broke ground Wednesday on Dynamic Drive near Aluminum Dynamics, marking the start of construction of Kloeckner Metals’ $90 million aluminum processing facility, to be housed on ADI’s customer campus.
Gov. Tate Reeves addressed a crowd of about 100 attendees at the groundbreaking ceremony, while behind him the groundwork of construction had already begun with excavators pushing and flattening dirt on the nearly 32-acre site.
“It’s unbelievable what’s happened here,” Reeves said. “I will tell you, as governor of Mississippi, there aren’t many days better than having the opportunity to fly into the Golden Triangle Regional Airport and watch what’s happening around here, and to see it from the air is incredible.”
Kloeckner Metals is the first tenant to take up shop on the 1,200-acre campus designed to house ADI customers. Kloeckner Metals USA CEO John Ganem said he expects construction of the 222,500-square foot facility to be completed by the end of 2026, with equipment arriving shortly after.
Ganem said he expects processing to begin around the same time and ramp up through the first quarter of 2027. The facility is expected to process up to 150,000 metric tons of aluminum annually, shaping the material from ADI into products like slit coils and sheets.
Once built, Ganem estimates the facility will directly employ about 40 people locally at a high-paying salary, though he didn’t give a range for what employees could expect.
That’s just the start of what Ganem hopes to be a multiphase expansion of the facility, he said, though the number of phases they plan to move through is yet to be determined.
“It remains to be seen because there’s so many other things that we can get into,” Ganem told The Dispatch following the ceremony. “We’re going to follow the customer. It’s what the customer needs. … We’re going to make those investments and become an integral partner in that supply chain because we think that’s the way to build partnerships and that’s what this is all about.”
Ganem said once the first phase is complete, he hopes to bring cutting-edge laser-blanking technology to the facility to begin phase two. Ganem also hopes to move into fabricating, welding and laser-cutting to create finished parts in future phases.
“That’s just moving up the value chain, and that’s where we want to be,” he said.
The site has room for the facility to grow up to 677,500 square feet.
Planning for the project began in 2022 after Steel Dynamics CEO Mark Millett announced the construction of ADI. Ganem said he immediately wanted in.
“I immediately went to him, and … I said, ‘Mark, I want to be a partner, and I want to be the first one on campus,’” Ganem said. “That was 2 and 1/2 years ago. We’ve been working hard at it, and we went through a very, very rigorous process with them to prove we were the right partner, and we got their support.
“(Millett) told us how incredible it is to invest here and the reliability of the people, the commitment of the people, and we’re really a business that’s all about the people we employ and taking care of those people, so it just seemed like a natural fit for us,” he added. “We just couldn’t be more excited to help better the lives of 40, hopefully 50, 60, 100 people as we continue to expand.”
Golden Triangle Development LINK COO Meryl Fisackerly said Kloeckner Metals’ involvement has been a vision for the ADI customer campus since the beginning.
“This was something we knew was coming,” Fisakerly told The Dispatch. “We always wanted a tenant for this park, and so when we broke ground on Aluminum Dynamics just a couple of years ago, this was a vision. It’s really exciting to see it come to fruition so quickly.”
ADI’s customer campus allows for at least 10 customer companies to co-locate and purchase materials from the mill in return for free freight, preferential scheduling and scrap collection. Fisackerly said discussions with other companies interested in co-locating are still underway.
“(Aluminum Dynamics) is having conversations with who they think would be ideal customers for this park, and I think this one is just the kind of momentum this park needs to have the next one locate,” she said. “I can’t give a for-sure timeline, six months or a year, but I definitely think you’re going to see this park fill up in the next couple of years.”
Aluminum Dynamics began production in August.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
