AMG Critical Materials N.V. has opened a chrome metal production facility in New Castle, Pennsylvania, making the company the only producer of chrome metal in the United States.

The $15 million facility has a planned annual capacity of 6,500 tons. It ends a 20-year gap in domestic production—the country's last chrome metal plant closed in 2006, leaving the U.S. to import 100% of the material until now.

Chrome metal is used to improve the performance, durability, and heat resistance of advanced alloys. It's a key ingredient in nickel-chromium superalloys used in jet engines like the LEAP engine, in space-launch vehicles including SpaceX's Starship, and in solid oxide fuel cells for clean-energy systems.

"Chrome is now being recognized at a level commensurate with its strategic importance to modern manufacturing—a long-overdue acknowledgment of its essential contribution to the industry. Chrome metal enhances the performance, durability, and heat resistance of advanced alloys. And with our new high-purity chrome metal facility, AMG is onshoring the production of a material deemed critical for U.S. national security," said Dr. Heinz Schimmelbusch, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO.

Only three plants in the Western world produce chromium metal. Two of them are now AMG's—the New Castle facility and an existing plant in Rotherham, United Kingdom, operating since 1938 with 15,000 tons of capacity. The rest of Western production comes from China and Russia.

The New Castle plant sits next to AMG's existing titanium facility. AMG has invested more than $400 million in its U.S. operations over the past several years, across facilities producing chrome, vanadium, and titanium.