Matalco Inc., a division of the Giampaolo Group of Companies, plans to construct several greenfield aluminum remelt facilities for billet and rolling slab production and related processes and services. The new facilities will increase Matalco’s existing capacity by approximately 75%, in response to growing demand from customers in underserved market geographies and requirements for increasing product range. In addition, the new casthouses will provide processing services for the vast automotive flat rolled aluminum product supply chain and needs of specialty alloy aluminum billet markets.
“Matalco’s four existing aluminum plants have the broadest product offering and flexibility for providing closed loop, scrap-based billet and slab ingot products,” said Tom Horter, president of Matalco USA Operations. “The proven capabilities of our people, assets, and technologies provide the nucleus and granularity for understanding market challenges and generating the solutions to meet the future supply chain requirements of our customers. Our employees and leadership teams, who passionately serve our customers, have demonstrated successful process and product development growth through several prior successful greenfield start-ups. At Matalco, we have nearly tripled our capacity in two years, so the fast pace demanded by the market is not new to us. The ongoing expressions of confidence shown by our customers to provide us with privileged insights into their specialized requirements have been the catalyst to proceed at this time. We have enthusiastically responded to their desire for Matalco to complete their product qualifications, including PPAP’s starting in Q-3, 2019.”
The expansion has been approved by the Giampaolo Group company, but the exact amount of the investment has not been disclosed, not the number of casting plants to be constructed or their exact locations. “Our team has been working with state and local economic representatives in the Upper Midwest states of Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota and the Southern States of Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky,” said Frank Mastrandrea, from the Giampaolo Group management board. “I can confidently state that these projects will positively impact the pay-for-performance minded employees of both Matalco and our Triple M Metal division and will attract new results-oriented leaders and skilled professionals to our winning team. The Giampaolo Group is just at the infancy of igniting new supply chain partnerships which will be welcomed in our expanding operating locations and footprint.”
Matalco has an existing capacity of 1 billion lbs per year, with plants in Lordstown, Ohio (350 million lbs), Canton, Ohio (180 million lbs), Bluffton, Indiana (225 million lbs), and Brampton, Ontario, Canada (250 million lbs). The company recently acquired the Bluffton location through the acquisition of Alexin. Horter stated, “The recent integration of Alexin into Matalco has provided the right base for new employee training and innovative product and process development, enabling speed to market in these growing niche areas, bringing to life the exciting business possibilities to attain the Giampaolo Group’s medium and long-term objectives for our businesses.”