Century Aluminum reopens in Hawesville, KY

There are winners and losers in President Trump’s escalating trade wars.

One of the winners is Century Aluminum in Hawesville, Kentucky, which has reopened for the first time since 2015.

The end of 2015 was a tough time for Hawesville when Century Aluminum was forced to shut down because of threats of cheaper aluminum prices from other countries. But just this spring, President Trump implemented tariffs, bringing the industry back to the US.

"This country almost lost, was in six months of losing its primary aluminum capacity. We would have had to buy aluminum from places like the Persian Gulf and Russia and India," says Century’s President and CEO Michael Bless

But now those aluminum sales are coming right back to Hawesville, bringing 300 new jobs to the area and hundreds of thousands of dollars into the community."We’re incredibly excited but quite frankly we’re more excited for the people in that plant and their families in that community across the river there and all the surrounding communities," said Michael.

And those jobs could change the way of life for many people in Western Kentucky as Century is planning to invest over $150 million to more than double the output at the plant.