A Multifaceted Partnership
The St. Louis headquartered organization MX Holdings, which oversees Metal Exchange and Pennex and specializes in nonferrous metals, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Century Aluminum Co. from Chicago.
Established in 1974, Metal Exchange stands as the cornerstone of an expanding worldwide network of businesses centered around aluminum and various other nonferrous resources. Located in St. Louis, MO, this privately owned entity runs six production plants across the United States while maintaining sales outlets domestically and abroad, including Shanghai and Zurich.
And, for over four decades, Pennex has been a trusted provider of premium aluminum extrusions for clients in the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Southeast, and upper midwest regions. Offering a comprehensive range of services from casting billet to fabricating finished components, Pennex caters to diverse markets like automotive, transportation, construction, electrical, machinery, consumer goods, and distribution.
Finally, Century Aluminum Company is also an international leader in the metals and mining sector. With a presence in various countries including the U.S., Iceland, Jamaica, and Netherlands, the group is committed to delivering sustainable and cost-effective solutions globally.
The partnership between these firms will pave the way for a new joint venture focused on producing and promoting low-carbon secondary billet crafted from recycled materials and utilizing low-carbon production techniques.
A Potential Location Identified for the Facility
In an announcement from Century Aluminum, the team in charge of the joint venture is currently evaluating various sites within the Ohio Valley area for the new facility. Plans are in place to kick off production in 2026, with a goal of reaching an annual output of 250 million pounds.
“Expansion into scrap recycling has been a long-term strategic focus for Century, but finding the right partners and opportunities are critical to the success of that strategy,” the senior vice president of strategy and business development at Century, Matt Aboud, stated.
“We believe MX Holding’s scrap knowledge and extrusion expertise coupled with Century’s value-added-production capabilities are a compelling combination. By leveraging the strengths of Century and MX Holdings, we believe this joint venture can deliver a differentiated value proposition to customers looking for next-generation extrusion products and offer an alternative source in this fast-growing segment.”
“Century is pleased to be partnering with another American company—MX Holdings—to establish a new entity serving the automotive and general extrusion industries” he continued.
“We are excited to embark on this endeavor with Century—a partner whose business strategy and expertise complement our own and whose team shares our values and people-centric culture,” MX Holdings CEO Matt Rohm concludes. “By pairing our collective focus on customer service with a state-of-the-art facility, cutting-edge processes and advanced technical expertise, billet produced by the joint venture will not only deliver exceptional quality and performance but will enable our customers to achieve their sustainability objectives more effectively.”
Looking Ahead
Moving forward, MX Holdings is committed to sustaining the production of billet at its current Pennex facilities, which are under full ownership. “Each company will produce various alloys to meet specific customer needs.”
In the past few years, several companies such as Steel Dynamics Inc., Novelis, Hydro, Granges Americas, and MetalX have revealed plans to invest in low-carbon aluminum production through the utilization of scrap metal.
During the summer of 2022, Rio Tinto, a metals and mining corporation based in London, invested $29 million in the establishment of an aluminum recycling facility at its Arvida plant located in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec. This strategic investment enabled Rio Tinto to broaden its range of low-carbon aluminum solutions, catering to the needs of clients in industries such as automotive, packaging, and construction.
Then towards the end of the last year, Rio Tinto also completed a deal to acquire a 50 percent ownership interest in Matalco, a prominent player in the North American market that specializes in producing recycled aluminum billet and slab products. Matalco operates six manufacturing facilities in the United States and one in Canada.
