TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Primary aluminium and downstream products manufacturer Alcoa on Thursday further solidified its downstream capacity to serve the aerospace industry when it cut the ribbon to the world's largest aluminium-lithium plant in Lafayette, Indiana.

The NYSE-listed company noted that the $90-million facility would produce advanced, third-generation aluminium-lithium alloys to meet aircraft manufacturers' growing demand for lighter and stronger aluminium-lithium alloys, which were cheaper than titanium and composites and enabled better fuel efficiency and lower maintenance costs.

Opened on the eve of the US’s Manufacturing Day, the new plant at Alcoa's Lafayette operation created 75 new jobs in the state. Alcoa employed more than 3 200 people at three locations in Indiana, which were more than in any other state. The company also operated plants in La Porte and Newburgh, just east of Evansville.

This was Alcoa’s second aerospace announcement in Indiana in five months. In May, the company announced a $100-million expansion at its LaPorte facility where it would produce nickel-based superalloy jet engine parts. The expansion would create 329 jobs by 2019.

"The future of aviation is being built with aluminium-lithium and Alcoa is making big moves to capture that demand,'' Alcoa chairperson and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said in a press statement.

Alcoa explained that the plant could produce the world's largest aluminium-lithium ingots, which were 50% larger than the nearest competitor and big enough to make any single-piece component on today's aircraft. Alcoa's Lafayette cast house can produce more than 20 000 metric tons of aluminium-lithium a year.

The company boasted that the plant complemented the 5.6 m rolling mill - the world's widest - at Alcoa Davenport Works, in Riverdale. The Quad-City plant's capabilities made it the only company capable of producing single-piece, aluminium-lithium wing skins for the largest commercial airplanes. Single-piece parts were stronger, lighter and cheaper because they reduced the number of complex joints, the company said.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp, the City of Lafayette and Tippecanoe County provided more than $6.2-million in local and state incentives for the project.

The New York-headquartered company was transforming its portfolio, which, in recent months, saw the largest US aluminium producer make a string of significant investments in its downstream specialist manufacturing business segments, strategically building out these manufacturing capabilities to generate increased revenues in the face of low primary aluminium prices.

Earlier this year, Alcoa Davenport Works completed a $300-million automotive expansion, which added 200 new jobs.