MetalX plans $200M Midwest aluminum plant

Fort Wayne-based MetalX is partnering with private investment firm Manna Capital Partners to build a more than $200 million aluminum rolling slab facility in the Midwest and create about 100 jobs.

The metal recycling company said a specific location has not yet been identified, but the plant would be located in northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio or southern Michigan.

The facility, which could be as large as 500,000 square feet, is expected to produce 220 million pounds of ultra-low carbon aluminum rolling slab annually with a higher percentage of recycled content than what is currently available, MetalX said. The plant will produce alloys primarily for the beverage, packaging and auto industries.

“As new aluminum mill rolling capacity comes on-line, demand for rolling slab is expected to increase, especially for low carbon slab with high recycled content,” a spokesperson for MetalX said in an email to IIB. “The Midwest locations are desirable due to proximity to raw material supply.”

The company said a decision on which location will get the plant is expected within the next six months. The plant is expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2026.

MetalX said the facility will anchor a $300 million greenfield recycling campus that will also include a processing operation from the company, as well as a dedicated logistics center from New York-based Page Trucking Inc.

The campus will be designed to provide closed-loop recycling to support the aluminum industry.

MetalX is headquartered in Fort Wayne, where it also operates a community recycling facility. The company also has processing facilities in Auburn and Wabash, and employs 230 people across its entire footprint.

The company previously had recycling operations in Waterloo, Indiana and Delta, Ohio before it sold its ferrous scrap steel recycling business unit to Australia-based BlueScope in a $240 million deal in late 2021.