AMG Critical Materials N.V. said its newly opened chrome metal production facility in New Castle, PA puts it on track to become the sole producer of chrome in the United States.
The $15 million investment will result in a planned annual capacity of 6,500 tons of chrome, the company said. The new facility will address a long-standing deficit in U.S. critical materials supply. Chrome is an essential part of the nickel-chromium superalloys in jet engines from the LEAP jet engine to space-launch vehicles including rockets like SpaceX’s Starship to clean-energy systems like solid oxide fuel cells. By establishing a US-based production facility, AMG said it will secure a domestic source for chrome in America.
There are only three plants in the Western world that produce chrome metal. Until AMG’s announcement, the United States imported 100 percent of its chrome metal. Officials said importing chrome created a supply-chain and national security risk with chrome among the most critical of metals.
AMG Chrome makes chrome metal in Rotherham, United Kingdom, and has since 1938. Currently, the facility has a capacity of 15,000 tons, supplying customers worldwide. The New Castle plant will extend that capacity to the U.S, renewing domestic production that was lost when the last American chrome metal plant closed in 2006.
“Chrome is now being recognized at a level commensurate with its strategic importance to modern manufacturing — a long-overdue acknowledgment of its essential contribution to the industry. Chrome metal enhances the performance, durability, and heat resistance of advanced alloys. And with our new high-purity chrome metal facility, AMG is onshoring the production of a material deemed critical for U.S. national security,” Dr. Heinz Schimmelbusch, chair of the Management Board and CEO.