Aluminum Manufacturer “Goes Green”

Aleris Corporation is an innovator in “going green” in the aluminum manufacturing industry.  In his interview with Kathleen Hoffelder of CFO magazine, Sean Stack, executive vice president and CFO of Aleris, talks about the company’s manufacturing model and how it works with customers to promote its aluminum sustainability efforts.

Aleris Corp., a privately-held aluminum manufacturer based in Cleveland, has two global business units: selling aluminum plate, sheet and coated products and aluminum recycling. The manufacturer, created by the joining of two $1 billion companies, Commonwealth Industries and IMCO Recycling, that performed those tasks independently, has now grown into a $4.5 billion company with more than 40 production facilities in North America, Europe and Asia.

‘Aluminum is a material that is infinitely recyclable. It can be used over and over again. The ability to provide recycled aluminum into a customer’s product is becoming increasingly more important,’ says Sean Stack, executive vice president and CFO of Aleris.

‘We sell material to the customer and the customer packages up 100 percent of their waste back to us. In a lot of cases, we deliver molten metal right back to the customer so they don’t have to re-molt it and incur an additional cost. That works for both automotive and other aluminum-sheet manufacturers,’ says Stack. Aleris recycles 2 billion pounds of aluminum per year.

Recycling aluminum, he says, helps his firm as well as his clients. ‘It’s a huge cost saving for them. It’s a win-win being able to drive a better stewardship of sustainability. And we make money and they make money as a result of it.’