By Ryan Dezember | Photography by Justin Clemons for WSJ
Inola, Okla., known as the Hay Capital of the World, could soon have another moniker to consider: America's Aluminum Epicenter.
The prairie town east of Tulsa has been selected by Emirates Global Aluminum, or EGA, and Chicago-based Century Aluminum as the site for the first new aluminum smelter in the U.S. since 1980. Construction is expected to cost more than $4 billion and begin by year-end. It is expected to employ about 1,000 workers once complete.
The planned smelter, designed to produce up to 750,000 metric tons a year, would more than double the U.S.'s smelting capacity.
It is a surprising development in an industry that had mostly given up on making primary aluminum in the U.S. because of high electricity prices. Bringing it to completion will test whether the U.S. can revive its ability to produce materials vital to the economy and national security in an era in which China has come to dominate the processing of metals and many critical minerals.
The timing is auspicious. President Trump's 50% tariff on aluminum, meant to encourage investment in domestic production, has dramatically lifted costs for manufacturers that must import metal.
Meanwhile, war in the Middle East has choked off a big share of global aluminum supply. Some facilities have been damaged by missile and drone attacks and aren't expected to be fully restored until next year, driving prices toward all-time highs and highlighting the risk U.S. manufacturers face relying on far-flung producers.
Producing primary aluminum is energy-intensive. Smelters dissolve refined bauxite, or alumina, in a solution and jolt it with an electric current to chemically separate the aluminum from oxygen.
Abundant natural gas in the United Arab Emirates fueled EGA's rise as a leading aluminum producer. EGA sells more than 20% of its aluminum in the U.S., which was once the world's largest producer but now must import most of what it consumes.
EGA opened a sales office in St. Louis in 1999 and considered building a U.S. smelter years ago but the return then didn't justify the expense, said Ziad Fares, who is leading the Oklahoma project. Two years ago, EGA dusted off its American expansion plans. It bought a majority stake in an aluminum recycling plant in Minnesota and started scouting locations for a smelter.
"It's one of our largest and strongest markets, but it's the one that's the farthest away from our production base," Fares said. "So we were exposed to logistics disruptions."
Century credits Trump's aluminum tariffs for its own expansion plans. The largest domestic producer of primary aluminum has championed the tariffs, which were set during Trump's first term at 10% and raised last year to 25%, then 50%. In between, in 2024, Century won a $500 million Energy Department grant made under Biden-era infrastructure-funding programs to build a state-of-the-art smelter in the Ohio or Mississippi river basins.
Century's Mt. Holly smelter in South Carolina, which opened in 1980, is the country's newest. Century originally asked EGA about licensing its latest smelting technology. They joined forces instead -- Century will have a 40% stake.
Matt Aboud, Century's senior vice president of strategy, said building a smelter has become a lost art in the U.S. "But we know how to operate in this jurisdiction," he said. "We know how to navigate local politics, federal politics, workforce."
The smelter will take at least three years to build and be expected to operate for decades. EGA says it isn't counting on the tariffs that have helped drive up aluminum prices to make the project profitable.
EGA considered 45 sites in more than two dozen states, Fares said. Electricity costs, which make up more than one-third of production expenses, were paramount.
A smelter can consume as much power as a large U.S. city. For decades they ran on low-price hydropower from federal utilities, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Northwest's Bonneville Power Administration. When those arrangements ended, smelters had to pay market rates and began closing.
There were 24 operating in 2000, before the U.S. relinquished its lead in aluminum production. Although producers, including EGA, have been investing in aluminum recycling capacity, just four smelters make the primary aluminum necessary in many defense and aerospace applications. China became the world's dominant producer.
Oklahoma offered ample natural-gas output as well as hydropower and wind farms that produce a surplus of relatively cheap electricity, said John Budd, chief executive of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Recruiters also touted business friendly regulation, an ice-free port deep inland as well an aerospace industry and other big aluminum consumers.
Among them is M-D Building Products, a 105-year-old Oklahoma City company that makes thresholds, weatherstripping and other products sold at Lowe's, Home Depot and Ace Hardware. It buys metal made by EGA in the Middle East.
"We've seen the shutdowns of smelters throughout the last 50 years in the U.S. and have really lived on the front lines of being a company that has had to buy aluminum from all over the world," said Ryan Plotkin, whose family owns M-D.
His family helped lure the smelter and is investing alongside it. Plotkin stepped down from running M-D earlier this year to start U.S. Aluminum Company, which will turn molten metal from the smelter into products such as specialty alloys and wire rod.
Its plant will neighbor the smelter at the Tulsa Port of Inola, an industrial park on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System that links New Orleans to the Great Plains.
Billions of pounds of alumina barged upriver will feed the smelter, while the metal will typically leave by rail or truck, Plotkin said.
EGA and Century say they are completing engineering, pursuing permits and negotiating for electricity. Future rates are a concern, given the proliferation of artificial-intelligence data centers and the loads of electricity they are forecast to consume.
"We're trying to find ways to make sure that we're not collateral damage in this giant build-out that may happen," Aboud said.
Write to Ryan Dezember at ryan.dezember@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Emirates Global Aluminium is partnering on a new smelter in Oklahoma. "How Oklahoma Landed America's First Aluminum Smelter in Half a Century, " at 11 a.m. ET incorrectly used the American spelling of aluminum in the company's name.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 12, 2026 16:43 ET (20:43 GMT)
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