The form says Alcoa intends for the output to be used for automotive purposes. That is a requirement of the ATVM program, which specifies that the vehicles funded by the program must be at least 25 percent more efficient than their counterparts from 2005. Environmental groups, which pushed for the creation of the program, have

Supplies of aluminum have been tight in recent years, prompting a round of investments by Alcoa. The company projected in 2013 that its sales of aluminum sheet to automakers would more than triple to $580 million in 2015 from $160 million in 2012. The permit form doesn’t indicate that the expanded Tennessee plant will supply

It should come as no surprise that, in the cyclic view of aluminum and its effect on society and the collision repair industry, things would begin to spin and spin pulling in every possible money making angle as is possible. In the case of Alcoa Inc., this is an aluminum production site at a Tennessee factory,