Novelis temporarily shuts down Greensboro facility after equipment explosion

Novelis has temporarily shut down its Greensboro, Ga., recycling and casting facility following an explosion and fire on March 1, the company confirmed.

“In the late afternoon on Sunday, March 1, an explosion occurred in a piece of equipment at Novelis’ recycling plant in Greensboro, Georgia, leading to a fire in the equipment,” the company said in an official statement provided to AMU. “We are thankful there were no injuries to employees or first responders.”

The plant “is shut down at this time, as we clean the impacted areas,” Novelis said. The cause of the incident remains under investigation.

Facility role

Novelis said Greensboro is a stand-alone recycling and casting facility. The plant operates shredding lines, a de-coater, three reverberatory furnaces, a holding furnace and a compact degasser.

The site processes used beverage cans and other aluminum scrap into large stock ingots that are shipped to rolling mills for further processing into sheet products.

Scrap is received by truck and rail, shredded, de-coated to remove paint and coatings, and melted in reverberatory furnaces before casting into direct-chill ingots weighing between 30,000 and 60,000 pounds, according to Georgia air permit documentation.

Aluminum scrap input to the de-coater is capped at 18,166 tons per month. Coated aluminum charged directly across the three melting furnaces combined may not exceed 1,000 tons per month, according to the facility’s Title V operating permit

Those limits indicate most coated material is designed to be processed through the de-coating system rather than charged directly to furnaces.

Novelis said it does not provide capacity by plant.

Equipment history

In 2019, Novelis announced a $36 million investment to expand and upgrade recycling capabilities at the Greensboro facility. The project included new scrap processing equipment and installation of a baghouse intended to enhance dust mitigation.

Subsequent regulatory filings authorized replacement of the existing shredding line and installation of a new shredding line, controlled by a multi-cyclone system and a fabric filter baghouse, according to state permit records.

Looking ahead

Despite the shutdown, Novelis said it does not anticipate significant customer disruption.

The company cited recycling and casting capacity at its Berea, Guthrie and Longan facilities in Kentucky, as well as at its Oswego, New York plant, along with access to third-party casting centers.

“We do not expect this to have a significant impact on our Beverage Packaging customers,” the company said. “Additionally, we expect no impact on our Automotive or Specialty customers.”

Nicholas Bell

Nicholas brings over half a decade of experience covering metals markets, pricing trends, and supply chain dynamics. Prior to joining AMU, he reported on aluminum, high-temperature scrap, and ferro-alloy markets at Argus Media, with additional coverage of minor metals and rare earths. His work has built deep expertise in North American metals pricing and trade flows. A native of Houston, Nicholas holds a bachelor’s degree in Media Production and an MBA with a concentration in Finance, both from the University of Houston.