June 18 Kentland Rotary Club Nanshan Aluminum Extrusion Plant

Rotarian David Asher, left, hosted Monday's guest speaker, David Kummer, who is the Human Resources Manager for the new Nanshan aluminum extrusion plant being constructed south of the Tippecanoe Mall at the intersection of highway 52 and Veterans Memorial Pkwy in Lafayette.  Shandong Nanshan Aluminum Co., Ltd. is investing over $100 million for the greenfield development of the large scale aluminum extrusion facility.  It is the first large scale greenfield, soft alloy plant to be constructed in the U.S. in some 40 years.  Although a Chinese firm, Nanshan is not a state owned firm. 

The facility is being built in "Nanshan Time".  Nanshan time is a company reference for moving quickly.  In January 2011 the company selected the construction site, made a public announcement and began to design the facility.  In May 2011 earth work was begun, and in May 2012 Nanshan received its certificate of occupancy.  It took only 13 months.  Normally such a large project would take at least 3 years.  The plant is large.  To get an idea of how large the 600,000 sq. foot plant is, imagine the 16 football fields that would fit under its roof. 

Production is expected to start in August after the installation of a 5,000 US ton Italian extrusion press.  This will be followed by the installation of a 9,200 US ton German SMS Meer press with a hand off to production expected January 2013.  These huge presses will produce highly engineered aluminum shapes for commercial customers.  One such customer, Wabash National, uses various aluminum shapes to assemble its semi-trailers.  They are just across the street (Parkway) from Nanshan. 

At this time there are about 40 employees.  At full build out and production, Nanshan expects to employ between 150 and 200 employees.  It will have a talented workforce that will be paid according to their skills.  Employees will also receive health insurance that is paid 100% by Nanshan and has no deductibles.  

Lafayette was chosen for several reasons:  The location is almost the center of the aluminum market with a good interstate infrastructure and easy access in any direction to cover markets.  Lafayette has a high quality labor pool with low cost compared with the East or West coast.  Having a world class engineering school like Purdue for a neighbor was also a big plus.  Also, Nanshan  America corporate headquarters is conveniently in not too distant Chicago.  And last, but perhaps not least, the president of Nanshan America, Lijun Du, holds a master's degree in business which he earned from the Krannert School of Purdue University.