ASHLAND, Ky. — Braidy Industries says it is on schedule to meet its anticipated target of bringing its new aluminum rolling mill at EastPark Industrial Center to full commercial operation in 2021.

The company has reported spending $15.7 million on construction so far on the estimated $1.68 billion project in eastern Kentucky.

Braidy Industries will be an advanced manufacturer of metals for the global transportation and defense industries. The company broke ground on the proposed mill in June 2018. Braidy officials said then the company has completed engineering and architectural plans for the mill and has substantially completed negotiations on its engineering, procurement and construction contract.

The massive project is backed in part by state taxpayers after the Kentucky state legislature approved a $15 million investment in Braidy Industries in 2017. Company officials have said in previous reports that they expect the mill to create about 600 jobs for the economically depressed Appalachian region where Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio meet.

According to fact sheets released by the company, construction of the new aluminum rolling mill will position the company as the low-cost provider of production-ready series 5000x and 6000x aluminum sheet for the automotive industry. When opened, the Braidy Atlas mill will have the capacity of 300,000 tons per year, and the mill’s capacity is sold out for its first seven years of production.

Meanwhile, Braidy Atlas (Braidy’s subsidiary building the mill) has converted the reservations of approximately one-third of its capacity into long-term binding contracts, according to a fact sheet.

“These binding contracts range from 7 to 14 years, and at today’s prices, are expected to generate approximately $4 billion of revenue over the course of the contracted period,” the fact sheet stated.

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