Century Aluminum played big role in region

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Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022 3

Century Aluminum played big role in region

BY KEITH LAWRENCE

MESSENGER-INQUIRER

Century Aluminum was greeted with a hero’s welcome in 2001 when it arrived in Hancock County.

When it completed the purchase of the Hawesville aluminum smelter from Southwire Co., steelworkers greeted the new company with a predawn parade.

In September 2000, the union voted 323-24 to ratify a five-year contract with Century, ending a labor dispute that began in June 1998, when approximately 400 union workers walked off their jobs at the plant.

But there have been some rough spots since then.

In 2015, the company announced plans to “curtail its plant operations on Oct. 24, 2015, unless the current pricing environment substantially changes.”

It added, “Chinese overcapacity and the improper export of heavily subsidized Chinese aluminum products have undercut an otherwise viable plant.”

At the time, there were 565 employees at the plant, down from 650 a month earlier, before layoffs began.

Century decided instead to idle three of its five potlines that year and laid off about 350 people.

But in 2018, after then-President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on foreign aluminum, the company began reopening the plant.

Then in June 2022, Century, Hancock County’s second-largest employer, announced that it planned to shut the Hawesville smelter, which it called “our largest U.S. smelter and the largest producer of high purity primary aluminum in North America,” for nine to 12 months starting in August.

The layoffs actually began in June.

The problem, the company said, was that its costs for electricity had tripled in just a few months.

And County Judge-Executive Johnny Roberts said the company gave him no assurances that the plant will reopen at the end of that time.

“They said they’ll reassess it then,” he said.

Roberts said he worried “about the 628 employees who have to go home and find a way to make their mortgage and car payments.”

He said Century has about a $1 million a year impact on the county’s budget.

“That’s a pretty good percentage of our budget,” Roberts said.

The impact on the county’s economy will also include the loss of business to merchants when out-of-county workers will no longer be stopping to buy gas and eat lunch, he said. Mike Baker, director of the Hancock County Industrial Foundation, said earlier, “Century is a regional employer. The largest number of workers live in Daviess County. There are a lot in Ohio and McLean counties as well.” Andy Meserve, president of United Steelworkers Local 9423, said the June announcement came as a shock. He said the company had opened all five of its potlines just days before for the first time since 2015 and had been hiring recently. “We celebrated that,” he said. “I guess if it hadn’t been for the cost of power, we would still be rocking and rolling.” In April 2021, Century and the union announced a new contract that would last until April 1, 2026. And the company said it would add another 60 jobs at the plant. The website CareerBliss. com reported in June that “Century Aluminum employees earn $67,500 annually on average, or $32 per hour, which is 2% higher than the national salary average of $66,000” per year.

“We’ll do what we can to assist the company and the employees,” Baker said. “We thought things were going good there.”

On April 28, Century had reported that it shipments were up 5% and net sales were up 14%.

Net income was listed as $17.7 million for the first quarter of 2022.

“We are pleased to report these excellent results for the first quarter,” Jesse Gary, president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.

He added, “Our investments towards restarting production at Hawesville and Mt. Holly, combined with the hard work of our employees, have put us in a great position to benefit from the market conditions that we are experiencing today.”

Gary said, “Demand remains strong in our core markets in the U.S. and Europe and inventories have been drawn down to post-financial crisis lows. While we continue to see inflationary pressure in energy markets and other key raw materials, our focus on cost discipline and execution leaves us well situated to benefit from historically high aluminum prices.”

Century’s website says that the aluminum from the Hawesville plant is used “in the United States’ national security efforts and is used in defense applications such as the F-16, Airbus, naval war vessels, 747 airplanes and the International Space Station.”

Today, Hancock County — and the region — wait to see what the future holds for the plant.

Johnny Roberts Hancock County judge-executive Mike Baker director of the Hancock County Industrial Foundation Andy Meserve president of United Steelworkers Local 9423