Matalco To Close Canton Aluminum Plant, 71 Employees Losing Jobs

Economic Impact

Matalco, a North American aluminum manufacturer, announced it will close its Canton plant beginning June 6, affecting 71 employees. The shutdown process for the entire 100,000-square-foot facility is expected to take up to 90 days.

According to the company’s notification, “some” employees from the Canton plant will be offered positions at one of Matalco’s five remaining U.S. locations. The company specializes in remelting aluminum scrap into billet and slab for suppliers of extruded, forged and rolled aluminum products.

The company stated in the WARN notice that the job losses are permanent as the entire plant will be closed.

Additional Details

The plant closure follows a recent major development in late 2023, when London-based Rio Tinto purchased a 50 percent equity stake in Matalco for $700 million from the Canada-based Giampaolo Group.

Matalco acquired the Canton facility in 2010 through a receivership sale from Thakar Aluminum. The plant was built in 1996 and has been operating for nearly three decades in Stark County.

Other Matalco U.S. locations where some employees might be relocated include Bluffton, Indiana; Lordstown, Ohio; Shelbyville, Kentucky; and Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. The company also operates a facility at its home base in Brampton, Ontario.

Regional Manufacturing Impact

With the Canton facility’s closure, Matalco’s manufacturing presence in Ohio will be limited to its 225,000-square-foot plant in Lordstown. This represents another blow to Northeast Ohio’s industrial sector, which has experienced multiple closures in recent years.

The announcement comes as other manufacturing facilities in the region have also faced challenges. In October 2024, General Aluminum announced it would close its Conneaut plant, affecting 59 employees. That closure was attributed to “the unforeseen loss of ongoing customer orders, detrimental to the company’s ability to maintain business operations.”

Labor and Legal Considerations

Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, most employers with 100 or more employees are required to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs to protect workers, their families, and communities.

The Canton plant closure continues a concerning trend for Ohio’s manufacturing sector, which has seen several significant layoffs and closures in recent years.

Local officials have not yet commented on potential economic assistance for the affected workers.