MetalX, headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has completed the transaction to acquire the assets and operations of secondary aluminum smelter SRT Aluminum in Wabash, Indiana, which converts aluminum scrap aluminum in remelted specification (RSI) ingots in the form of sows and ingots. With the closing of the purchase, the newly acquired company operates as MetalX Aluminum Conversion LLC, or MAC.
MetalX announces the purchase in May this year.
The company also announced that aluminum and manufacturing industry veteran David Curence has been named plant manager at MAC and will be responsible for leading the company’s efforts to refine operating performance and increase capacity. Joe Rosengarten, former chief operating officer of SRT, will join MetalX’s commercial team as vice president. More than 120 people other than employees of the establishment have become employees of MAC.
MAC sits on a 40-acre site that also includes an aluminum shredder and turnings processing facility, smelting operations that use three electric induction furnaces and two reverberation furnaces to produce RSI in the form of sows and ingots. In the near term, MetalX has announced plans to increase monthly throughput from 11 million to 15 million pounds, with longer term plans to invest additional capital in capacity expansion.
“We are thrilled to welcome our new Wabash employees to the MetalX team and look forward to their support and participation in building a successful and growing company,” said Danny Rifkin, CEO of MetalX. “The completion of this transaction marks the first step in our plan to integrate aluminum smelting capabilities into our overall strategy.”
In late 2021, Australian steelmaker BlueScope announced it had reached a binding deal to buy MetalX’s scrap recycling business, describing the company as “the main supplier of scrap feed” to its electric arc furnace. of Delta, Ohio (EAF) mini-mill, North Star BlueScope Steel.
Following the announcement, Rifkin said MetalX would expand its non-ferrous business. BlueScope purchased the Delta and Waterloo facilities, and MetalX’s non-ferrous business from Waterloo was transferred to Auburn, Indiana.
He added: “We have been working on developing a broader non-ferrous strategy for some time. We see huge opportunities for the future in the non-ferrous segment, especially related to copper and aluminum. So as the world moves towards more electrification and lighter weight, and as the use of copper and aluminum becomes more prevalent in everything, we see this as an exceptional opportunity for growth. long term for the company.
MetalX was founded in 2012 by Danny and Neal Rifkin, third and fourth generation members of the Rifkin family, which has a long history in the scrap metal industry. The Rifkin family founded OmniSource, which the family sold to Steel Dynamics Inc., Fort Wayne, in 2007.