TacticScaleWhat Kaiser Aluminum Does & How It Makes Money (KALU)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Kaiser Aluminum's latest reported financials
US maker of specialty semi-fabricated aluminum mill products. It earns revenue by selling specialty aluminum mill products directly to aerospace and automotive manufacturers, their tier-one suppliers, beverage and food packaging makers, and metal service centers.
How Kaiser Aluminum makes money
It earns revenue by selling specialty aluminum mill products directly to aerospace and automotive manufacturers, their tier-one suppliers, beverage and food packaging makers, and metal service centers. It also charges for fabrication services such as sawing and cutting to length.
What Kaiser Aluminum does
Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, founded in 1946 and headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, makes semi-fabricated specialty aluminum mill products. These include flat-rolled plate, sheet and coil; extruded rod, bar, hollows and shapes; drawn rod, bar, pipe, tube and wire; and cast aluminum products. The company serves four main end markets. The first is aerospace, space and defense, with heat-treated plate and sheet, hard-alloy extrusions and seamless drawn tube. The second is beverage and food packaging, with 3000- and 5000-series coils. The third is general engineering, where 6000-series products go into military vehicle armor, semiconductor equipment, electronics, power transmission and tooling. The fourth is automotive, with extrusions for structural components, crash management, anti-lock braking systems and drive shafts. Kaiser sells directly to aerospace and automotive manufacturers, their tier-one suppliers, packaging manufacturers and metal service centers. Its sales staff are based in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. It also offers fabrication services such as sawing and cutting to length. Because it sells into several end markets, its results depend on aerospace build rates, beverage packaging demand, industrial activity and automotive production.
Products & services
- Aero/HS heat-treated plate and sheet
- Packaging coil (3000/5000-series, bare and coated)
- General engineering 6000-series plate, rod, bar and tube
- Automotive extrusions for structural and crash management parts
- Drawn tube, pipe and wire
- Fabrication services (sawing, cut-to-length)
What is Kaiser Aluminum worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Kaiser Aluminum's most-likely value is about $100 versus a recent price near $152 (34% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$59) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 7.3× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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