Global Trade
July 28, 2026
Century showcases ramped production at Mt. Holly
Written by Stephanie Ritenbaugh
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick joined Century Aluminum employees and South Carolina officials Monday to mark the restarting of idled capacity at its Mt. Holly smelter.
The $50 million project restarted idled capacity capacity at the smelter, increasing domestic primary production by about 10%. The plant had been operating at about 75% of its 230,000-metric-ton-per-year nameplate capacity.
The smelter accounts for about 30% of US-produced aluminum and is one of just four still operating domestically.
Century CEO Jesse Gary said the Mt. Holly expansion was aided by President Trump’s Section 232 program, which now levies a 50% tax on aluminum imports.
“Prior to President Trump’s historic re-election, America’s aluminum industry was on its knees,” Gary said at a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 27. “China, Canada, and other foreign adversaries had dumped massive amounts of aluminum into our country, cheated US trade laws and flooded our markets.”
Lutnick criticized foreign countries that “undercut us in every which way. They gave power to their guys for free or for half price just to make sure they could undercut us.”
Lutnick noted that aluminum is important to national security.
“We would be reliant on other countries to make our F-35s. Seriously, to make fundamental things that we need, we’d have to ask another country to do it,” Lutnick said.
Later this year, Century and its partner, Emirates Global Aluminium, plan to break ground on a 750,000-metric ton-per-year primary aluminum smelter in Inola, Okla. It would be the first greenfield smelter built in nearly 50 years.
Chicago-based Century also operates in Jamaica, Iceland and the Netherlands.
