Adv
LANGUAGES
English
Hindi
Spanish
French
German
Chinese_Simplified
Chinese_Traditional
Japanese
Russian
Arabic
Portuguese
Bengali
Italian
Dutch
Greek
Korean
Turkish
Vietnamese
Hebrew
Polish
Ukrainian
Indonesian
Thai
Swedish
Romanian
Hungarian
Czech
Finnish
Danish
Filipino
Malay
Swahili
Tamil
Telugu
Gujarati
Marathi
Kannada
Malayalam
Punjabi
Urdu
22 OCTOBER 2020 AL CIRCLE

Century Aluminum to close its Mt. Holly plant in December 2020, causing worries to Goose Creak businesses

EDITED BY : DEBANJALI SENGUPTA 2MINS READ

The high possibility of Century Aluminum to close down by the end of this year has already caused many Goose Creek businesses worried about the effects on the local industry. On Tuesday, October 20, Century Aluminum announced its Mt. Holly plant might close on December 31 unless they abled to secure a competitively-priced power arrangement with Santee Cooper.

Century Aluminium to close its Mt. Holly plant in December 2020, causing worries to Goose Creak businesses

{alcircleadd}

The plant’s closure will expectedly affect nearly 300 jobs and also those who have been doing business with Century Aluminum. It would be a huge loss for many local businesses like Allen and Webb, an industrial service and repair company, said Charles Swicord, the president of Allen and Webb.

“We do a lot of business out there. We have 38 employees. We do a lot of repair business,” Swicord said. “We’re probably not going to lay anybody off if they close, but they’re a significant force in this whole area to all these plants and for all the working people out here.”

Swicord pointed out that a lot of Century Aluminum workers earn high wages, which are difficult to come by in the Charleston area.

Michael Brakefield, EHS manager for Phillips Industrial Services, said: “We have a large client portfolio that’s very diverse and Century is a part of that and they’re a good client and they’re good friends.”

He added, “We’ve done a lot of work there over the years, it’s steady work and we’re in and out of the plant on a monthly basis. Perhaps we would not be in a position where we have to lay off a large number of people but every business counts, every local business counts when we’re making an American made product.”

The battle between Century Aluminum and Santee Cooper is not new, but this time it’s a real fear as the plant may close down. Last week, a judge issued an order saying Santee Cooper “has the exclusive right” to provide electrical service to Century Aluminum, as Goose Creek tried to create their own electrical service for the plant.

Global Bauxite Industry Insights

On Wednesday, October 21, Governor Henry McMaster said in a statement that they are closely monitoring the situation.

“We know we want to have affordable energy out for all the people and businesses so we can grow,” McMaster said. “There’s a lot of interest in that situation but I’ve seen no action at this moment for my office to take other than continuing to monitor the situation and understand what’s going on.”


Adv
Adv
Adv
Adv
Adv
Adv
Adv
EDITED BY : DEBANJALI SENGUPTA 2MINS READ

Responses

Adv
Adv
Adv
Loading...
Adv
Adv
Adv
Loading...
Reports VIEW ALL
Loading...
Loading...
Business Leads VIEW ON AL BIZ
Loading...
Adv
Adv
Would you like to be
featured with us?
Loading...

AL Circle: Aluminium Ecosystem App

A proud
ASI member
© 2026 AL Circle. All rights reserved. AL Circle is not responsible for content from external sources.