Spectro Alloys announced a $71 million expansion to add new aluminum recycling equipment to its Rosemount, Minnesota campus. The investment will allow the aluminum recycler to expand its capabilities to sort and melt post-consumer scrap aluminum and cast it into various sheet and billet alloys. This expansion is in response to the need for improved recycling rates in Minnesota, and a growing market for recycled aluminum sheet and extrusion driven by consumer demand for sustainable products, green building standards, a stable domestic supply chain and cost savings associated with recycled material. Spectro Alloys will break ground on the project in 2024 and be operational in 2025.
To produce recycled billet and sheet ingot, Spectro Alloys is expanding its Rosemount campus to approximately 42 acres and will build a new 90,000 sq.ft. building along Highway 55. The first phase of the project will result in up to 120 million pounds per year of additional recycling capacity and create up to 50 new full time jobs. Spectro Alloys is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Aluminum billet is used as raw material for extruders, who turn it into products like railings, window and door trim, and structural components for cars, boats, airplanes, trailers, docks, and more. Spectro will also recycle used beverage containers and other end of life aluminum products to produce sheet ingot – high purity slabs of aluminum weighing up to 60,000 pounds each – a feedstock for rolling mills.
In Minnesota, only 45 percent of aluminum beverage containers are currently being recycled, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Spectro’s investment will promote more recycling by unlocking greater value through reuse while providing large, direct, environmental benefits. Spectro’s recycling process uses 95 percent less energy and releases 95 percent less CO2 than new aluminum production. With this expansion, aluminum recycling at Spectro Alloys will save enough energy to power every home in Minneapolis and St. Paul combined.
The facility will include industry-leading automation and state-of-the-art equipment for sorting, melting, casting and homogenizing aluminum scrap, and the best available technology for pollution control.