A prairie town in Oklahoma is slated to become the country's biggest aluminum producer

The Inola smelter is expected to produce 750,000 tonnes 
of aluminum per year. (Modern Metals photo)

"Hay Capital of the World" is how many residents of Inola, Oklahoma, describe their small town of roughly 1,800 people. But these locals could "soon have another moniker to consider: America’s Aluminum Epicenter," reports Ryan Dezember of The Wall Street Journal. The prairie town was "selected as the site for the first new aluminum smelter in the U.S. since 1980. Construction is expected to cost more than $4 billion and begin by year-end. It is expected to employ about 1,000 workers once complete."

Over the past 50 years, the U.S. relinquished its dominance in primary aluminum production to China, as American producers closed their smelters amid rising electricity costs. Dezember adds, "A smelter can consume as much power as a large U.S. city."

Currently, U.S. businesses import most of their aluminum. The country has "just four smelters [that] make the primary aluminum necessary in many defense and aerospace applications," Dezember writes. "The planned smelter would more than double the U.S.’s smelting capacity."

 

Before choosing the Inola site, Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) and Chicago-based Century Aluminum, the two companies behind the smelter project, considered "45 sites in more than two dozen states," Dezember reports. "Electricity costs, which make up more than one-third of production expenses, were paramount."

McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, in green, is the 
most westerly inland river system in the U.S. (ODOT map)

In addition to affordable electricity from natural gas and hydropower, the Inola location offered "business-friendly regulation, an ice-free port deep inland, as well as an aerospace industry and other big aluminum consumers," Dezember explains. The Inola smelter site is also near the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which connects New Orleans to the Great Plains by way of the Mississippi River.

EGA and Century Aluminum say the smelter "will take at least three years to build," Dezember reports. Once completed, the smelter is expected to run for decades.

Steel and aluminum tariffs may price the Ford F-150, America's No.1-selling vehicle, out of reach for many people

The sticker price for a 2025 Ford F-150 is $38,810.

Ford proclaims its F-150 truck as "The Future of Tough," but newly announced 25% metal tariffs could dent Ford F-150 purchases and profits.

The F-150 is not only the country's number-one selling vehicle, it's also Ford's' main money maker and "one of the industry’s biggest users of aluminum," report Mike Colias and Bob Tita of The Wall Street Journal. "The Trump administration reinstated a blanket 25% tariff on steel imports and boosted the levy on aluminum made outside the U.S."

The sticker price of new vehicles is already a stretch for many Americans and an increase in tariffs could put a new auto purchase out of reach. "The tariffs are the latest Trump administration trade barrier that threatens to inflate already-high car prices," the Journal explains. "The aluminum tax in particular presents a problem for automakers: They are using more of the lightweight metal in cars, but the U.S. has been producing less of it" when measured over the past 30 years. 

Colias and Tita write, "Even though Ford gets most of its aluminum sheet from rolling mills in the U.S., those suppliers rely on smelters in Canada to provide much of the aluminum they roll."

In the past five years, though, domestic investment in aluminum production has increased. Even with that growth, "a Ford spokesman said it would take many years to rewire its supply chains to get more automotive-grade aluminum from the U.S," the Journal reports. "He declined to comment on the potential effect on prices should the tariffs last."

The steel tariff is easier for U.S. automakers to avoid because "companies source most of their steel from U.S. suppliers and have more domestic options," Ford has said it gets 90% of its steel from U.S. sources," Colias and Tita add. 

Even if U.S. tariffs remain in place, new auto purchase prices could remain unchanged for a little while. The Journal reports, "Many automakers have fixed-price metals contracts, and any effect on car prices would likely be delayed for a few months as suppliers and carmakers negotiate over who will absorb the added costs."

An aluminum smelter hasn't been built in the U.S. in 45 years; proposed sites are in Kentucky and Ohio

Smelting furnaces in an aluminum plant
(Adobe Stock photo)

Aluminum is versatile, abundant and light, and it is in hundreds of commercial items, including appliances, zippers, golf clubs and indoor furniture. Despite its excellent manufacturing properties, the raw material has production drawbacks — its smelters use loads of electricity and the fossil fuels used to create that electricity harm the environment, reports Maddie Stone of Grist. However, in the United States, the way aluminum is made may soon change. Century Aluminum Company, a global aluminum producer, is negotiating with the Department of Energy for up to $500 million in grant money to build a new aluminum smelter.

Promoted as the "green aluminum smelter," the facility would be "the nation's first new aluminum smelter in 45 years, which could double the amount of virgin, or primary, aluminum the country produces while emitting 75% less CO2 than older smelters, thanks to increased efficiency and the use of renewable electricity," Stone writes. "The grant, which is awaiting finalization, is a 'huge vote of confidence and a shot in the arm' for the industry, said Annie Sartor, the aluminum campaign director at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit focused on industrial decarbonization."

Protecting the environment while supplying the U.S. with tons more aluminum means the production process matters for aluminum, which requires extreme amounts of electricity. Rebecca Dell, an industrial decarbonization expert with the nonprofit ClimateWorks, told Stone, "We're talking about truly eye-watering amounts of electricity. . . . The first, most important thing to do is to use clean electricity."

Creating a climate-friendly smelter means Century Aluminum must find a site to support its clean energy demands. "According to the DOE, Century Aluminum's preferred site is in Kentucky, a state with lackluster clean energy credentials," Stone writes. "Sartor says she expects a plant of this size to require 'somewhere in the neighborhood of a gigawatt' of power.'" Sartor added, "The only way that will happen is if gargantuan amounts of clean energy get built in Kentucky. . . . There's no other way around this."

While Kentucky is the favored location, Century Aluminum hasn't decided. "Locations within the Ohio and Mississippi River basins are also reportedly under consideration," Stone reports. "Dell believes that brings an interesting political dimension to the project because Century Aluminum expects the smelter to create more than 1,000 full-time union jobs and another 5,500 construction jobs."