On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it had awarded $23 million to the Constellium Muscle Shoals LLC to increase its aluminum casting production.
The Muscle Shoals, Alabama-based company plans to use the funding to increase its annual capacity for aluminum casting up to 300 million pounds. The added capacity will help the company increase its recycled input, reduce its use of primary metals and provide additional domestic source of supply for aluminum rolling ingots to the U.S. industrial base. Constellium is a major aluminum sheet supplier for the packaging and automotive markets.
“Aluminum castings are dispersed across many critical applications in defense – including flight critical structural components, rocket and space systems, and light-weight armor for ground vehicles,” Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy (ASD(IBP)), said. “This award will help address capability and capacity challenges that the U.S. aluminum casting industry faces as a result of an insufficient workforce and complex government policies.”
The funding will support the 2024 National Defense Industrial Strategy to expand support for domestic production and to increase supply chain resilience. The award is part of the Defense Production Act Investment (DPAI) and is part of more than $381 million awarded to 18 programs across the country since the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year. DPAI is overseen by the ASD(IBP)’s Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) program, in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience.