Technology

Novelis named Metals Company of the Year

By Annie Reece | 24 May 2013 | Add a Comment

Novelis award

(L-R) Novelis CEO Philip Martens with the award for CEO of the Year and members of Novelis with the Metals Company of the Year award.

Aluminium rolling and recycling company Novelis has been named the Metals Company of the Year at the inaugural Platts Global Metals Awards in London. 

Selected from amongst 17 finalists in the aluminum, copper, raw materials and mining, steel, and other industries, Novelis was recognised for ‘its impressive transformation over the past two years, which has strengthened the company’s focus on sustainability, recycling, technology and capital expansions’. 

The independent judging panel noted that Novelis has reached a 43 per cent recycled content rate since committing to increase recycled content from 33 per cent in 2011 to 80 per cent in 2020, and remarked that the company won the title for its ‘combined stewardship, innovation and wide-ranging leadership’. 

Novelis President and Chief Executive Officer Philip Martens was also named CEO of the Year. 

Martens was honoured for his ‘long-term strategic plan that has produced the company’s most aggressive expansion in its history while simultaneously launching industry-leading sustainability and high-recycled content initiatives’. The panel said it chose Martens as a winner in recognition of his ‘leadership in steering the $11 billion company from a loss of nearly $2 billion back into profitability by unifying, solidifying and centralizing operations in less than a year’. 

Speaking of the awards, Martens said: “It is a tremendous honour to be selected by Platts as both the Company of the Year and the CEO of the Year across the full breadth of the metals industry. 

“Being named Company of the Year is the result of the dedication and hard work of our 11,000 employees across the globe, and I want to express my heartfelt thanks to each of them.” 

Novelis was also a finalist in four categories, including: 

  • Industry Leadership Award – Aluminum;
  • Innovative Technology of the Year Award for its creation of Novelis Flextreme™ Technology;
  • Lifetime Achievement Award for Bob Wagstaff, Global Technology Leader Molten Metal Processing; and
  • End-User Efficiency Initiative of the Year in partnership with Jaguar Land Rover

The first Platts Global Metals Awards honours ‘excellence and accomplishments in the global metals industry’. It is modelled on the Platts Global Energy Awards, now in its fifitheenth year. 

Warrington plant completes Rotorshredder upgrade 

The news follows Novelis’s completion of a £1.7 million upgrade programme at its aluminium can recycling plant in Warrington, Cheshire. Upgraded Rotorshredder equipment was installed to increase the plant’s capacity to separate plastic contamination from UK-sourced used beverage cans (UBCs), and has reportedly improved processing volumes by more than 250 per cent (since it first started operations in September 2012).

The Rotorshredder works in conjunction with a pre-existing optical sorting system to clean contamination such as paper and plastic from UBCs.

Speaking of the new equipment, Brian McCallie, Plant Manager at the Warrington site said: “This investment brings an increased ability to process material from local sources and will make a big impact on our UK operations. It’s also an important step toward reaching Novelis’s goal of increasing the recycled content of our products across our global operations to 80 percent by 2020.”

Read more about Novelis.