Local company Hydro Aluminum will expand its Henderson facility on Riverport Road with an $85 million investment that will include adding 31 new jobs.
According to a release from Henderson Economic Development, Hydro will expand its current facility by 80,000 square feet, bringing the total operational square footage to nearly 200,000.
In the new addition, the company will introduce HyForge technology to the Henderson plant, which is a technique already in use at the company’s primary plant in Norway and recycling plant in Germany, said the release.
According to its website, Hydro has 140 factories in 40 countries and employs 32,000 people worldwide.
The new HyForge casthouse at the Henderson facility is expected to become operational in 2026, said the release. It will produce smaller diameter billets using a lot of end-of-life scrap, said the release.
With the 31 new jobs, the local facility will employ 91 people, said Henderson Economic Development Executive Director Missy Vanderpool.
Vanderpool said her organization—and specifically Whitney Risley, who is economic development director of existing industries—worked for about a year to get this expansion done at the local plant.
Vanderpool said it was a competitive process that pitted the Henderson facility against another Hydro facility in Michigan. She attributed the company’s decision to expand in Henderson to competitive state and local incentive packages.
Regarding state incentives, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily approved a 10-year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program, according to the HED release.
It’s a performance-based agreement that can provide up to $1 million in tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $85 million, said the release. For the company to receive the incentives, it must maintain 31 full-time jobs for 10 years that pay an average hourly wage of $40.50 including benefits, said the release.
Without including benefits, the pay is equal to $29.50 per hour, Vanderpool said.
Additionally, KEDFA approved Hydro for up to $150,000 in tax incentives through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act, said the release.
On the local level, Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said county government will waive the construction permit fee, which totals about $12,800, and is granting a rebate to the company on the 1% occupational tax on each of the 31 new employees for 10 years. He said over that period, the company will get back more than $190,000 from the occupational tax rebate.
Vanderpool also said Hydro has a great relationship with a strong local workforce, another reason for the company choosing to expand at the Henderson facility.
The amount of electric vehicle and vehicle battery manufacturers in the state also played a role in the local expansion, Vanderpool said. The new building will produce billets that will be used for electric vehicle production, she said.
“Hydro Henderson has been at the forefront of producing recycling-based automotive products for nearly 20 years,” Hydro President and CEO Eivind Kallevik said in the release. “We work closely with the automotive industry, and introducing Hydro’s HyForge technology will provide Hydro and our partners with a greener advantage. Made in America.”
Correction: In a previous version, it was reported that Hydro’s occupational tax rebate on 31 new employees would be about $19,000 over a ten-year period. That is incorrect. The occupational tax rebate, part of the county government’s incentive, will be about $190,000. The Hendersonian regrets the error.