Metalico Aluminum gets approval to start production

Metalico Aluminum Recovery Inc. has been issued an air permit for its new aluminum smelting plant in the Syracuse area, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the company’s planned expansion in Central New York.

Metalico Aluminum makes processed aluminum products, principally deoxidizing cones and shot used in the manufacture of steel. Production at the new facility is scheduled to begin this spring. When fully operational, the plant will have a production capacity of up to 6 million pounds per month and is expected to bring 70 jobs to the Syracuse area. The average selling price of deox in 2006 was approximately $1.08 per pound.

The company started producing aluminum deox at a pilot plant in leased space in Lackawanna, N.Y., in 2003. That plant generated approximately 900,000 pounds of product per month. With the purchase of its Thompson Road site in suburban Dewitt, N.Y., in early 2006, Metalico Aluminum announced plans to relocate and expand its operations after extensive renovations.

The new plant, when completed, will house a new 180,000 pound/28 million BTU reverberatory furnace, a 96-inch diameter turnings dryer, a 300-horsepower ring mill turnings crusher, three cone casting lines and a shot line, all supported by state-of-the-art pollution control equipment. Metalico Aluminum makes its products from aluminum turnings, old sheet, beverage containers, siding, clip and most other grades of scrap aluminum purchased from regional suppliers. The air permit, issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Services, also allows for a second reverberatory furnace, a sweat furnace and a rotary furnace to be added over the next few years, which could take Metalico Aluminum’s overall aluminum capacity to more than 10 million pounds of processed aluminum per month.

The expanded facility will ramp up to monthly production of approximately 6 million pounds by the spring of 2008. Jon Marantz, a veteran executive with more than twenty years of experience in the aluminum processing and refining industry, oversees the facility as Metalico Aluminum’s director of operations.

The company also co-located a traditional ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal recycling yard on the Thompson Road site. Scrap operations have grown ahead of expectations since they began in June 2006. The growth of Metalico’s scrap operations in Syracuse over time is expected to create another 20 to 40 new jobs in Central New York.

Metalico Aluminum is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Metalico Inc., a rapidly growing holding company with operations in two principal business segments: ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal recycling, and fabrication of lead-based products.