Novelis will move forward with a Phase 2 expansion of its recently opened operation in Todd County with a roughly $365 million investment to construct a new recycling center that will create 140 well-paying jobs for local residents.
Novelis will construct a new sheet ingot casting, shredding and recycling center with annual capacity of 240,000 tons to serve the automotive market. The new facility – to be located adjacent to the existing automotive finishing plant on Old Railroad Lane in Guthrie – is expected to reduce Novelis’ carbon emissions by more than 1 million tons each year and enable the company to grow its automotive recycling programs in North America.
Using recycled aluminum as input material requires only 5% of the energy used to make primary aluminum, thus avoiding 95% of the carbon emissions associated with production.
The expansion announcement comes just over two months after Governor Beshear joined Novelis for the grand opening of the automotive aluminum finishing plant in late October. That facility included a $300 million-plus investment and creation of over 150 jobs, including 100 Kentucky residents.
Novelis also operates a 130-employee beverage can recycling facility in Berea that opened in 1989. The Madison County facility melts and casts ingots from 20% of the nation’s recycled beverage cans.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Novelis recycles and produces aluminum globally, with 33 advanced rolling and recycling facilities in nine countries across North and South America, Europe and Asia.
To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) preliminarily approved a 15-year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based agreement can provide up to $5 million in tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $364.2 million and annual targets of:
creation and maintenance of 138 Kentucky-resident, full-time jobs across 15 years;
and paying an average hourly wage of $38 including benefits across those jobs.
In addition, Novelis can receive resources from Kentucky’s workforce service providers. Those include no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job-training incentives. ■