The facility includes the latest technology for aluminium scrap sorting, de-coating, melting and casting and gives Novelis the flexibility to process a wide range of scrap types, creating a closed-loop recycling system.
18 scrap types
Erwin Mayr, president/SVP Novelis Europe, told FoodProductionDaily, construction on the plant began in November 2012 and approximately 200 employees will work at the site.
“The facility can process up to 18 different scrap types across all market segments. This flexible plant design is the first of its kind in the Novelis system and will serve as a model for future installations,” he said.
“We built this plant because the company has an aggressive goal to reach 80% recycled content in its products by 2020.
“We expect to achieve 50% recycled content this year and we will continue to invest in our recycling capacity with additional investments expected in every region where we operate.
“We also want to develop more recycle friendly alloys and advanced recycling process technologies to ensure efficiency.”
Beverage cans
The recycling centre will process up to 400,000 metric tons of aluminum scrap a year. Aluminium ingots produced at Nachterstedt will be hot-rolled at Novelis' facilities in Norf, Germany, and Sierre, Switzerland, and then supplied to company operations across Europe for further processing.
Finished coils of aluminum sheet will be delivered to customers primarily in the automotive and beverage can markets.
Since 2011, Novelis has invested approximately $500m to expand its recycling network, doubling its recycling capacity to 2.1m metric tons per year and raising its recycled content from 30% to 46%.
“The Nachterstedt recycling center is a significant step toward our goal to be the world's low-carbon aluminum sheet producer.We know it’s the world’s largest facility based upon industry knowledge of capacity of existing recycling centers around the world,” added Mayr.
“To achieve our 80% target by the end of the decade, we’ll have to make other major recycling investments in other parts of the world, though we have no specific plans to announce at this time.”