‘World’s largest’ aluminium recycling centre
Global aluminium rolling and recycling company Novelis has announced it has broken ground on a US$250 million (£157 million) aluminium recycling and casting centre at its plant in Nachterstedt, Germany. Constructed adjacent to the company's existing aluminium rolling mill, the new centre will enable the company to produce 400,000 tonnes of aluminium sheet ingot from recycled material annually, and, it is claimed, will be the world's largest aluminium recycling centre.
The facility will process used beverage cans as well as aluminium scrap from across continental Europe, and is intended to help the company achieve its target of increasing recycled content across all its products to 80 per cent, which was announced in its 2011 Sustainability Report. The company expects the centre to create 200 new jobs when it is commissioned in mid-2014.
Phil Martens, President and Chief Executive Officer for Novelis, said: "This investment represents another step in delivering on our commitment to dramatically increase the recycled content of the rolled aluminium sheet we provide to our world-class global customers, while also signifying our long-term commitment to the European market. The advanced sorting, processing and casting capabilities of the new Nachterstedt operation will propel us closer to our goal of 80 per cent recycled content by 2020."
Tadeu Nardocci, Senior Vice President of Novelis and President of Novelis Europe, was joined at the ground breaking ceremony by Dr Reiner Haseloff, First Minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, who commented: "I am delighted that Novelis, as an important investor, is reinforcing its commitment to Nachterstedt significantly with this new investment. This will further improve the local employment market."
The Nachterstedt expansion is the latest in a series of recycling and casting projects launched by Novelis over the past two years totalling nearly US$450 million (£282 million), including the commissioning last month of an integrated recycling and casting centre in Yeongju, Korea. Novelis aims to increase annual recycling and casting capacity to 2.1 million tonnes by 2015.
Read more about Novelis on the company website.
