“We are incredibly excited to announce this meaningful growth opportunity, which is aligned with our existing business and operational expertise,” SDI chairman and chief executive Mark D. Millett said in a statement. 

“We have intentionally grown with our customers’ needs, providing efficient sustainable supply-chain solutions for the highest quality products. Thus far, this has primarily been achieved within the carbon steel industry – however, a significant number of our carbon flat-rolled steel customers are also consumers and processors of aluminum flat-rolled products. Today we are announcing our plans to broaden our ability to serve our existing and new customers by adding high-quality, low-carbon flat-rolled aluminum to our product portfolio,” he said. 

The project will produce aluminum for three markets: beverage cans, automotive and industrial common alloy. The beverage can market is an entirely new one for Steel Dynamics. 
 
Central to the plan is a US$1.9 billion flat-rolled aluminum mill to be built somewhere in the southeastern U.S. The mill will be capable of annually producing 650,000 metric tons. The equipment is to be supplied by SMS group. 

SDI said the mill will include value-added finishing lines, a continuous annealing solutions heat treating line, among them; continuous coating capabilities; and various slitting and packaging operations. Start-up is expected in the first quarter of 2025. 

SDI will own a 94% stake in the rolling mill under a joint-venture agreement with an entity called Unity Aluminum. SDI said Unity Aluminum employees will bring significant aluminum industry operating expertise to the project, complementing SDI’s own construction and operating talent.

At full capacity, the rolling mill is expected to consume 900,000 metric tons of aluminum slab. Much of that will be derived from recycled aluminum, about half of which is expected to be produced on-site. The remaining half of its recycled aluminum slab requirement is to be supplied by two supporting casting facilities, one to be built in the southwestern U.S. and the other in northcentral Mexico. 

Those two facilities will be entirely owned by SDI and together are expected to cost US$350 million. 

SDI is betting on its ability to help meet domestic demand and take market share from imports. 

“The North American flat-rolled aluminum industry has a substantial and growing supply deficit estimated at over 2 million metric tons, based largely on increasing demand from the automotive and sustainable beverage can industries,” the company said.

The lack of aluminum flat-rolled availability has impacted automotive producers’ ability to secure supply. The supply deficit is currently being addressed through imports of higher-cost aluminum flat-rolled products, which exceeded 25% of North American consumption in 2021.”

Although SDI will be new to aluminum production, it is not necessarily new to the aluminum business. Its scrap arm, OmniSource, is the largest non-ferrous metals recycler in North America, and its automotive customers are also aluminum consumers. 

Those factors, combined with its mini-mill culture and operational know-how, give the company a substantial advantage, it said.  
“A new aluminum flat-rolled mill has not been constructed in North America for over 40 years. Steel Dynamics plans to bring the ‘mini-mill’ culture and related operating efficiency to the flat-rolled aluminum industry,” it said.