A taxpayer-funded $9.5 million improvement to Constellium’s Ravenswood Aluminum plant in Jackson County is expected to clear the way for new work making aluminum for armor, ships and planes. The U.S. Department of Defense is paying up-front for the work because of concern the U.S. does not have enough domestic capacity for key defense material. Constellium underwrote the improvements from 1950’s technology with money from the nation’s Defense Department to increase output, quality and performance of cold, rolled aluminum.
WCHS TV said Monday’s re-start marked the completion of the first phase of a complete tear down. Now the shift will be to new products made possible by the upgrade. The mill improvements are not expected to generate any additional jobs at Constellium, which is Jackson County’s largest employer with some 1,100 workers.