Matalco Breaks Ground for $125M Lordstown Plant
LORDSTOWN, Ohio -- When Matalco Inc. was shopping for a site to locate its $125 million aluminum smelting plant, the Mahoning Valley always remained high on the company’s list.
“From the very beginning, we were interested in the Ohio area because of the heavy concentration of aluminum extruders,” says Joe Caruso, CEO of Matalco’s parent, The Giampaolo Group, based in the Canadian province of Ontario. “You want to be as close as possible to your customers.”
After two years of planning and preparation, construction on Matalco’s $125 million aluminum smelting plant at the Ohio Commerce Center in Lordstown should begin in earnest within a couple of days. Public officials, development specialists and company principals broke ground on the long-awaited project Wednesday afternoon.
Matalco announced in July its intent to construct a 200,000-square-foot plant here. A coordinated effort between economic development agencies in the state of Ohio, Trumbull County, and the village of Lordstown helped bring the project to fruition, executives agreed.
“Lordstown ended up being, in many ways, the most attractive option,” Caruso said. The 31.2-acre site at the Ohio Commerce Center proved ideal because of its proximity to major interstates, a cluster of customers nearby, and the across-the-board support the company received from regional development agencies, public officials and land brokers. “We got everybody involved, and they did a great job in convincing us to locate here," he said.
The plant will manufacture aluminum billets, which will be shipped to companies that use an extrusion process to manufacture different shapes and products, said Robert Roscetti, director of corporate development. The new plant will include two furnaces that melt scrap aluminum, as well as two holding furnaces, which will keep the molten metal hot until it can be casted into billet form at the plant.
“More important than the technology is the way we put it all together,” Roscetti continued, noting the company entered the aluminum business nearly 10 years ago. “The key now is based on best practices and continuous improvement. We think we have a really good formula.”
Building construction should be finished by next summer, he reported, and the plant is expected to be operating by early 2016. As many as 80 workers will be hired.
Matalco’s new operation will be able to produce billets seven, eight, 10, 11, 12 and 14 inches in diameter and has the capacity to produce 350 million pounds of billets a year. Billets vary in length depending on the customer’s specifications, and the new plant will be able to produce billets up to 300 inches in length.
The Lordstown plant is also designed for maximum production efficiency, executives said.
“We’ve learned a lot of hard lessons on how to configure a plant,” said Caruso. “We’ve learned from mistakes we’ve made in the past. Suffice to say, we are not sparing anything when it comes to the latest technology.”
Matalco operates another plant in Canton; its parent Giampaolo Group owns a metals recycling company in Canada that sends scrap aluminum to feed Matalco’s stock.
Caruso said the market is strong at the moment, spurred by the desire of automotive companies to increase the amount of aluminum content in vehicles that they produce.
The Giampaolo Group’s plants in Canada often ship product to this area of the United States, he noted, and the new operation would place manufacturing much closer to customers. “It will also allow us to increase market share with those same customers and build upon that. Ohio is a significant market for us to invest more and expand,” he said. “There’s a big market for it.”
Guests speakers at the press event included Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Thomas Humphries, CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, David Mustine, director of JobsOhio, Trumbull County Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa, and Lordstown mayor Arno Hill. All congratulated the company and the efforts of the many development specialists who helped make the project happen.
“It’s been a great couple of days in the Mahoning Valley,” Taylor said. “Matalco making an investment in Lordstown, creating jobs. It’s great news for our state.”
The project received an eight-year 50% job creation tax credit from the Ohio Job Creation Tax Credit Authority valued at $450,000; a 75% tax abatement from the village of Lordstown; a development grant from the privately held JobsOhio; and workforce services and on-the-job training assistance from the Trumbull County Ohio Means Jobs office.
“We’re very proud to be part of this community,” Caruso said. “We’re not only going to be a commercial success, but also a great corporate citizen.”
Pictured at the groundbreaking: Paul Redmond, representing PNC Bank, and the co-owners of parent company The Giampaolo Group, Michael and Tito Giompaolo.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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