Lowndes County’s Aluminum Dynamics mill shipped its first products this summer after two years of construction at the facility.
The mill, owned by the Indiana-based company Steel Dynamics, produced and shipped its first aluminum coils in June, according to a company press release.
Golden Triangle LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said this first shipment is a positive sign for what’s to come.
“You really get the sense that it’s fixing to be real,” Higgins said. “They’re making their first productions. … They told us they thought they’d be up and running in late summer this year, and I think they’ve done what they told us they were going to do.”
Construction of the aluminum flat-rolled mill began in 2023 as part of a $2.5 billion project to construct two Steel Dynamics facilities – the 2.3 million square-foot aluminum mill on Airport Road and a biocarbon production facility on Artesia Road.
The two facilities were projected to create a combined 1,000 jobs with an average annual salary of $93,000. Construction at the biocarbon facility is nearing completion, Higgins said.
Higgins called the aluminum mill’s first production a “soft opening.”
“Very rarely do these companies open their doors and start making 100% production,” Higgins said. “Even though you’ve trained your workers and all that, it’s still a learning curve, and you still have to learn your machine. They’re running product. They’re just not running it at what we would call a commercially-viable volume right now.”
The mill serves three aluminum sheet markets including food and beverage cans, automotive and common alloys or industrial products, according to previous Dispatch reporting. Rather than relying on raw materials that come out of the ground, the facility melts aluminum scraps, filters them and casts them into new products.
Steel Dynamics Chief Executive Officer Mark Millett said during Steel Dynamics’ quarterly earnings call that he expects production at the Columbus mill to steadily increase in the coming months, projecting utilization at the mill to reach between 40% and 50% by the end of this year and to reach 75% by the end of 2026.
Millett said the aluminum mill houses three of Steel Dynamics’ four melt casthouses, which are specialized areas used to melt and shape the aluminum scraps, according to a transcript of the earnings call The aluminum mill also houses a cold mill and a hot mill, both of which are used for processing and refining metals to be shaped. Commissioning for all the equipment, Millett said, is on schedule.
Operating losses from aluminum operations, Millett said, totaled $69 million in the first quarter of 2025, though he expects these losses to lessen in the coming months.
“We estimate comparative losses to be in the range of $40 million for the third quarter of 2025 … then improving to between $15 million and $20 million for the fourth quarter as we complete commission, commence product certification and ramp production,” Millett said.
Millett said he expects aluminum operations to reach monthly positive earnings before the end of the year.
“We expect to be at … breakeven to slightly positive before the end of 2025 and increasing thereafter as we continue to ramp and optimize our product mix,” Millett said.
Higgins told The Dispatch he is anticipating more wins to come from the aluminum mill.
“We’ve got some customers that are looking in their customer park that we’re working with,” Higgins said. “… That’ll be the next deal. We should get several wins when that starts happening, so we’re excited … a little bit more than excited.
“My guess is they’ll have that thing producing max capacity in just a few months,” he added. “… It won’t be long before they hit that one year anniversary, that five year anniversary, and I think by then they’ll have a real good skilled trade.”
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