Aluminum Scrap Markets
June 26, 2026
ENKEI America to close Jacksonville aluminum wheel facility
Written by Nicholas Bell
ENKEI America plans to permanently close its Jacksonville, Fla., aluminum wheel manufacturing facility, ending operations at a site equipped with aluminum melting, remelting, casting, machining, and finishing assets.
The company disclosed the closure in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing dated June 24. ENKEI said the action will eliminate all positions at the Jacksonville facility, with employment terminations expected to occur on or about Aug. 30, 2026.
The company attributed the closure to ongoing labor recruitment and retention challenges, together with continued high operating and maintenance costs that it said made stable, cost-effective production more difficult.
The WARN filing lists 62 affected employees across production, maintenance, engineering, supervisory and administrative positions. Casting operations account for the largest classification with 15 positions, followed by 12 machining operators and 10 maintenance technicians.
Aluminum melting assets
Air permit records identify the Jacksonville operation as an aluminum automobile wheel manufacturing facility equipped with primary aluminum melting and internal aluminum recycling through on-site remelting operations.
The manufacturing process included melting new aluminum ingots and recycled wheels, die casting, heat treating, mechanical shaping, machining and painting. The facility also recovered aluminum machining chips generated through a dedicated chip melter before returning the metal to production.
Two aluminum melt furnaces and one chip melter that supplied molten metal to the casting lines.
Permitted capacity increased in 2025
The planned closure follows a recent increase in the facility permitted production rates.
Jacksonville finalized an administrative amendment to the facility’s air permit on Oct. 10, 2025, increasing the maximum permitted process rate for each of the two aluminum melt furnaces to 2,900 pounds of aluminum per hour from 2,200 pounds per hour.
Combined, the two melt furnaces were permitted to process up to 5,800 pounds of aluminum per hour, equivalent to about 2.6 metric tons per hour.
The amendment also increased the permitted process rate for the chip melter to 804 pounds per hour from 704 pounds per hour.
ENKEI America
ENKEI America has supplied original equipment aluminum wheels for multiple automakers.
Company product information identifies original equipment wheel programs for Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Rivian and Mazda vehicle programs.
ENKEI America, a subsidiary of Japan-based ENKEI Corp., is headquartered in Columbus, Ind. The company also operates an aluminum wheel manufacturing facility there, while another Columbus facility manufactures dies used to produce aluminum wheels.
ENKEI established its Jacksonville operation in 1997. The facility became ENKEI America Jacksonville Operations in 2016.
