Each “charge” loaded into a furnace at Aluminum Dynamics Inc. represents five truckloads of aluminum.
One of those truckloads is virgin metal, said Devin Crawford, ADI’s metal and cast manager. The other four are scrap.
On Tuesday, that information prompted an enterprising question from a Rotary Club of Columbus member at Lion Hills Center.
“Where do I bring my cans, and how much will you pay me for them?” the Rotarian asked jokingly.
“Take your cans to Omnisource,” Crawford replied with a smile, referring to the metal recycler that provides all of ADI’s scrap. “We don’t take retail.”
Crawford updated the club Tuesday on the continued “ramping up” of ADI’s plant west of Golden Triangle Regional Airport. About $2.4 billion has been invested at the site since its groundbreaking in 2023, he said, with the plant shipping its first aluminum coil in June 2025.
Now, the still-upscaling plant employs more than 600 of its target 750 workers. At full capacity, the plant’s annual output can reach 650,000 metric tons, or more than 21,000 coils of rolled aluminum.
To Crawford’s surprise, he said millwrights have been the most challenging positions to fill at the plant.
“From my experience, I thought it was going to be electricians,” he said. “… The talent down here, especially for electrical, (is) really great. But millwrights, there seems to be a good age gap between the very seasoned (ones) that are settled and have good-paying jobs and the entry-level millwrights that don’t quite know enough.”
The plant services three different markets – cans, automotive and industrial – all requiring different gauges of aluminum.
“Automotive, more and more, is going to aluminum,” Crawford told Rotarians. “(Ford) F-150 was the first big (pickup) to go to it. But even your GMCs, now, a lot of the side panels are aluminum. Obviously, with EVs and cars, more and more components are aluminum.”
Kloeckner Metals broke ground on a $90 million facility in October, becoming the first of as many as 10 potential tenants on ADI’s customer campus next to the plant. Once complete, it is expected to process 150,000 metric tons of ADI aluminum annually, shaping into products like slit coils (for specialized manufacturing) and sheets.
Crawford said finding other tenants for the customer campus will be a “pretty selective process,” and new tenants “won’t compete with Kloeckner or anything else ADI ships out.”
One Rotarian asked about how higher tariffs are affecting ADI.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in aluminum pricing,” Crawford said. “A month ago, it went to an all-time high. That is affecting the entire industry. So it doesn’t hurt us any more than it hurts anyone else.”
As a secondary impact, Crawford said, it has become more difficult to find magnesium, which is used to strengthen the aluminum in the rolling process.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
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 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
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 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
