The cold mill at Novelis’ Bay Minette, Alabama, facility is set to be commissioned next quarter.
In the earnings call of parent company Hindalco, it outlined the progress being made, with full start up scheduled for the second half of 2026.
Steve Fisher, CEO at Novelis, said: “[Regarding] the advancement of Bay Minette, we've made great progress over the past 12 months.
“At the site, we're about to commission a cold mill next quarter and then the rest of the equipment through the main work next year.
“The strategic nature of this project in ensuring that we're ready to continue to expand. This is because of the situation in the US - it is significantly short of capacity for beverage packaging. With the tariff situation, this project becomes even more strategic.”
The earnings call also saw the announcement of the revised costs for the Bay Minette facility, with the total figure increasing to $5 billion from $4 billion.
Head of Investor Relations at Hindalco, Subir San, added: “Our Bay Minette greenfield rolling and recycling facility in the US is progressing well, building a strong foundation for the future, as this industry needs more domestic capacity to meet growing customer demand for beverage packaging, automotive and speciality aluminium products.
“The total project cost will now be around $5 billion.”
Fisher continued: “We talked a year and a half ago about the increase to the $4 billion number, we said we had a significant portion of engineering completed - we did not have 100% of engineering completed.
He added: “Now, we are 100% complete in engineering, and so we are confident in the $5 billion numbers we see here today.”
Upon completion, the facility is expected to have a capacity of 600kt for finished goods.
Approximately 420kt will be for production of beverage packaging sheet.
