Century Aluminum

Century Aluminum is a Chicago-headquartered primary aluminum producer with smelting operations in the United States and Iceland, founded in 1995 and listed on Nasdaq. It is one of a small number of companies still operating primary aluminum capacity in North America, an industry that contracted sharply through the 2000s as electricity costs rose. In 2026 Century took a 40% stake in Oklahoma Primary Aluminum, a joint venture with Emirates Global Aluminium to build a roughly $4 billion, 750,000-tonne-per-year smelter at the Tulsa Port of Inola. It would be the first new U.S. primary aluminum plant in about 45 years.

Century’s saleable output splits into four product families. Billet runs 7 to 14 inches in diameter in 1XXX, 2XXX, 3XXX and 6XXX series alloys and is made in both the United States and Iceland. Sow is produced in the U.S. in P0610A and P1020A grades. Standard ingot and primary foundry alloy come out of Iceland in P0610, P1015 and P1020. The fourth line, Natur-Al, is a certified low-carbon product launched in 2020 and offered as standard ingot, foundry ingot or billet. Those products go to automotive, aerospace, defense, consumer goods and energy customers.

The company is unusual among U.S. producers in owning inputs as well as smelters. It holds a bauxite mine and alumina refinery at Clarendon, Jamaica, acquired as a 55 percent interest in Jamalco in 2023, and a carbon anode plant at Vlissingen in the Netherlands that supplies the Grundartangi smelter. Operating smelters today are Sebree in Kentucky, Mt. Holly in South Carolina, and Grundartangi. Annual primary aluminum capacity is roughly 770,000 tonnes, with more than 3,000 employees.

Recent activity at the plant level

A restart of idled capacity at Mt. Holly launched in 2025 and adds 50,000 tonnes, about 10 percent more U.S. production. The idle Hawesville, Kentucky smelter was sold in 2026 under an agreement to redevelop the site as a digital campus rather than bring it back online. Grundartangi and Jamalco carry Aluminium Stewardship Initiative certification, and Vlissingen and Mt. Holly reached ISO certification in 2025.

The smelter positions were assembled over two decades. Century took a 23 percent stake in Mt. Holly in 2000, Hawesville between 2001 and 2003, Grundartangi in 2004, Vlissingen in 2012, Sebree in 2013, and the remaining Mt. Holly interest in 2014. Grundartangi itself grew from 90,000 tonnes at acquisition to roughly 320,000 tonnes by 2017.

Corporate offices are at One South Wacker Drive, Suite 1000, Chicago.