US aluminum is poised for a comeback — if it overcomes these hurdles

America’s aluminum sector is growing again after years of decline, spurred by tariffs and a push to revive domestic manufacturing. But the voracious power needs of aluminum smelters and communities’ concerns about pollution still pose major hurdles to scaling up production.

Globally, a deficit in aluminum supply is expected to worsen this year following damage to major Middle Eastern smelters and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict. At the same time, soaring U.S. power consumption is boosting demand for the versatile metal, as the makers of transformers, cables, and other electrical equipment race to build out the grid.

“There is very little cushion left anywhere in the system,” Jesse Gary, president and CEO of Century Aluminum, said on an earnings call last week. ​“In a market with no slack, the value of secure domestic units goes up.”

Chicago-based Century recently marked the return to full operations at its Mount Holly aluminum plant in South Carolina — one of only four remaining U.S. smelters. The facility has begun churning out another 50,000 metric tons of virgin, or primary, aluminum, raising total U.S. production by nearly 10%.

Mount Holly is, at the ripe age of 46, the country’s youngest smelter. In 2015, Century partially idled the plant because of high electricity costs — a persistent problem faced by virtually all smelters, which require hundreds of megawatts of continuous power to convert raw materials into metal. Last fall, Century reached a new long-term power agreement for its Mount Holly plant with the utility Santee Cooper. (Over half the utility’s power supply comes from coal-fired power plants, and about a quarter comes from natural gas and oil.)

Other smelter projects advancing in Oklahoma and Missouri are expected to further increase domestic supply, but their success largely hinges on their developers’ ability to access cheap, reliable electricity for the power-hungry operations.

In Oklahoma, Century and its joint-venture partner Emirates Global Aluminium are working to build a giant new smelter that would more than double the nation’s capacity for making primary aluminum. If all goes as planned, Oklahoma Primary Aluminum could break ground by the end of this year and start producing its ​“first hot metal by the end of 2029,” Gary said on the earnings call.

The proposed smelter is set to receive a $500 million grant from the Department of Energy, which Century landed in 2024 from of a Biden-era program to decarbonize U.S. industries. The project was sited in Inola, Oklahoma, partly because of the state’s abundant natural gas and wind energy resources and solar energy potential. Utility-scale wind and solar represent the fastest and most cost-effective resources for expanding grid capacity — and running a smelter on renewables would sharply reduce the planet-warming gases and toxic pollution associated with aluminum production.

Oklahoma Primary Aluminum has been pushing for more than a year to strike a competitive deal with the local utility, the Public Service Company of Oklahoma. Gary said the developers have ​“advanced negotiations toward a final energy contract,” which they’ll need to obtain before construction can begin. ​“Just know that we’re working hard and continue to make progress,” he said.

However, the proposed 750,000-metric-ton smelter is facing growing pushback from state political leaders and Oklahoma residents, who worry that the hulking facility will pollute the air and water and harm cattle and crops in northeastern Oklahoma, including on tribal lands.

In recent weeks, members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Cherokee Nation have raised concerns about the project’s environmental impacts, with Muscogee leaders adopting a bill that opposes building and operating smelters on the reservation. Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma’s attorney general and a Republican gubernatorial candidate, has also opposed the smelter’s foreign ownership and pollution risks. On Aug. 11, he filed a motion to block construction of the smelter while his lawsuit against the project is pending.

Century and Emirates Global Aluminium claim the Inola facility will be significantly cleaner than existing U.S. smelters and will use the latest version of EGA’s smelter technology. ​“We’re working very closely with the community in Inola and elsewhere in Oklahoma to better understand what their concerns are and to make sure that they have all the facts about our technology and process,” Gary said.

Meanwhile, some 420 miles east of Inola, the company Magnitude 7 Metals is planning to partially reopen its idled aluminum smelter in New Madrid, Missouri, before the end of this year.

The manufacturer shut down operations in 2024 and laid off over 500 workers, after struggling with low aluminum prices and high power costs, Bloomberg reported. The 263,000-metric-ton facility represented about 30% of the nation’s aluminum production capacity at that time — and was Missouri’s single largest consumer of energy.

On July 1, Magnitude 7 Metals said it will restart about 75,000 metric tons of annual production at the facility. The company attributed the comeback to the Trump administration’s Section 232 aluminum tariffs, which raise the costs of importing aluminum for cars, cans, and construction. Last month, the White House also created a related tariff program that’s designed to further incentivize investment in new U.S. primary aluminum capacity.

Whether the tariffs can offset the inescapable challenge of electricity costs remains to be seen.

Annie Sartor, senior campaigns director at Industrious Labs, noted one potential roadblock for the Magnitude 7 Metals restart: Missouri’s ​“large load” electricity tariffs. The state adopted the policy in 2025 to ensure that major power users help cover the costs of improving grid infrastructure to support their increased demand. But while wealthy tech companies can afford those added expenses, they’ll only add insult to injury for aluminum producers.

“The smelter would face the same electricity cost structure as a data center — even though that same smelter has already curtailed operations twice [in 2016 and 2024] because of skyrocketing power costs,” Sartor said on LinkedIn. ​“The policy challenge is clear: a framework created to manage data center growth could unintentionally make it harder for manufacturers to operate, create jobs and support local economies.”

It’s also unclear how Magnitude 7 Metals plans to power its partially reopened smelter. The company did not immediately reply to Canary Media’s questions.

The facility was historically powered by the especially dirty New Madrid coal-fired power plant, which emitted the most nitrogen oxides from a power plant in the region and the country in 2020. Residents in southeastern Missouri who support restarting the smelter said they’re nevertheless concerned that it will drive up pollution, unless the smelter moves away from coal and toward clean energy, according to a March survey by Industrious Labs.

“Long-term economic investment will be more likely if this operation is powered by clean energy, especially solar and storage,” Jenn DeRose, Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign strategist in Missouri, said in a July 1 statement. ​“Powering the smelter with clean energy will help ensure the smelter’s long-term viability by leveraging affordable, fixed-cost energy, and cleaner air for everyone who lives in New Madrid County and beyond.”