Scrap magazine reports that “Matalco (Brampton, Ontario) plans to build a 110,000-square-foot aluminum billet manufacturing facility in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., investing $80 million, according to trade and media reports. Matalco sister company Triple M Metal (Brampton) will build a scrap-reprocessing facility at the Wisconsin site. With 80 full-time workers, the new facility will produce more than 230 million pounds a year of aluminum billet, using mostly recycled material, Matalco says. Pending city approval, Matalco will break ground this spring and open the facility by mid-2020.”
In other industry news, California Metal-X (Los Angeles) has acquired the assets of Colonial Metals Co. (Columbia, Pa.), a brass, copper, and bronze foundry that ceased operations last June. CMX has offered to pay Colonial Metals’ remaining secured debts so that company can avoid bankruptcy. CMX plans to restart production of copper-based alloys at the Pennsylvania facility, thus expanding its operations to the East Coast, Fastmarkets AMM reports.
Also of note, Schupan & Sons (Kalamazoo, Mich.) will invest about $10.1 million to expand its electronics recycling facility and its aluminum and plastic recycling division at two locations in Kalamazoo. The project received a $500,000 performance-based grant from the Michigan Economic and Development Corp.’s Michigan Strategic Fund, which anticipates the expansions will create 80 new jobs. Kalamazoo also provided a brownfield redevelopment incentive for the project. The electronics facility will add 80,000 square feet of processing space, including a second shredder, and 30 more employees. The plastics and aluminum recycling facility will grow by 40,000 square feet and 50 employees, according to news reports. The latter site will receive a new stormwater management system and improvements to the landscaping and parking areas, according to Scrap magazine.