After bankruptcy and a shutdown, a modest revival by new operators is underway in parts of the former 55-acre Aluminum Shapes complex in Pennsauken, where 3,000 workers once labored making vehicle and construction parts.
Shapes, founded in 1954 and earlier located in Northeast Philly, initially supplied windows and pools for fast-growing suburbs and then branched out. Its scaffolding was used to repair the Washington Monument and the Statue of Liberty. As U.S. building slowed in 2008, descendants of founder Ben Corson took the company into bankruptcy.
Private-equity owners took over, cut staff, and tried to refocus on specialized, high-profit markets. Under Chinese owners, the company went bankrupt again and closed in 2021.
Over the past two years, Texas-based Western Extrusions and Canada-based Almag Aluminum have relit thousand-degree gas-powered furnaces. Workers heap piles of gleaming scrap into updated melting, ramming and pressing (”extrusion”) machines to make parts their engineers design for manufacturers. The companies recalled dozens of workers laid off by former owners in hopes of reviving sales and benefiting from a pro-manufacturing climate in Washington.
