Hydro puts millions towards UK aluminium sorting plant

Hydro is investing EUR 15.3 million in a state-of-the-art sorting facility at its recycling plant in Wrexham, UK.

The plant will have the capacity to sort over 30 000 tonnes of aluminium scrap per year. This is enough aluminium for over 100 000 electric vehicles. The sorting facility will be located next to the extrusion ingot recycling plant and will provide 16 new local jobs.

Hydro will start construction in the autumn of 2024. The plant is expected to be operational by January 2026. It will feature the company’s innovative HySort technology to enhance sorting accuracy and capacity.

‘This new facility enables us to optimally sort a large variety of post-consumer scrap grades that are mainly exported out of the UK today, before continuing to the next step of the recycling process,’ comments Barry Salisbury, Hydro’s plant manager in Wrexham.

‘This is an essential improvement in material flow that allows us to meet the increasing demand for low-carbon aluminium that we see particularly within the automotive, transport, and building and construction segments.’

Salisbury points out that the scrap will be sourced from local scrap suppliers in the region. The new investment is one of several to step up Hydro’s commitment to recycling towards 2030.

‘Our recycling plant in Wrexham is already an essential producer of high-quality aluminium in the UK market. With the increasing interest from European customers to buy low-carbon aluminium, this sorting facility is a logical next step in optimising our recycling processes by using a wider range of post-consumer aluminium scrap,’ adds Ingrid Guddal, head of recycling for Hydro Aluminium Metal.