Novelis has started construction of an aluminium recycling and casting centre at its plant in Nachterstedt (Germany), says a press release. The company is investing USD250m towards the development. The plant will be built adjacent to the company’s existing aluminium rolling mill. With the help of a new centre, the company will be able to produce 400,000 metric tonne of aluminium sheet ingot from recycled material on an annual basis. The company expects the centre to create 200 jobs when it starts operations in mid-2014.
Significance: The latest investment complements Novelis’ strategy to reach its “goal of 80% recycled content by 2020”. Over the past two years, the company has aggressively invested in a series of recycling and casting expansion projects totaling almost USD450m, including the new integrated recycling and casting centre in Korea. These projects are targeted to increase Novelis’ recycling and casting capacity to 2.1m tons by 2015. Using recycled aluminium as raw material requires only 5% of the energy used to make primary aluminium from raw materials, thereby avoids 95% of emissions associated with production. With the help of recycled metal input, Novelis enables its customers to create environment-friendly products with a higher recycled content.
