The largest employer in western Kentucky's Hancock County is breaking ground on an expansion so that it can begin manufacturing aluminum sheet for vehicle bodies.
Aleris officials say the company hopes to start shipping the aluminum sheet by early 2017. The company's 1.6 million-square-foot mill in Lewisport employs about 800 people and has been open since 1964.
The Messenger-Inquirer reports Governor Steve Beshear and U.S. Representative Brett Guthrie were expected to attend Wednesday's groundbreaking for the $350 million expansion.
Beshear said in September when the expansion was announced that it was the single largest investment by a company in Kentucky in more than a year. He said Kentucky's aluminum industry added more than $2 billion to Kentucky's gross domestic product last year and accounts for more than 20,000 state jobs.