Norsk Hydro Shuttering Two U.S. Extrusion Plants

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Norway-based Norsk Hydro announced its decision to close two U.S. aluminium extrusion plants, as part of its efforts to streamline the company’s North American extrusion business. The two plants in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Belton, South Carolina will be closed permanently.

According to company press release, the last day of operations at the plants would be Jan 1, 2020. Furthermore, the operations will come to a full end in the first quarter of 2020. The closure is expected to impact nearly 150 employees at Belton plant. Those affected are welcome to apply for available job opportunities at the company’s other North American locations, the press release said.

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As part of efforts to minimize the impacts to customers, it has already started retooling and transferring business to other North American facilities.

Charlie Straface,business unit president, Hydro stated that the company arrived at the decision to close the plants after careful and extensive analysis of market capacity requirements and equipment utilization. The closures will help Hydro to better align its North American extrusion capacity and to meet customer needs for many years to come, Straface added.

Hydro had recently announced its decision to sell Hydro Extrusion SRL, an extrusion plant located in Romania to Hammerer Aluminium Industries (HAI), as part of its goal to optimize and streamline its worldwide extrusion business portfolio.