Novelis commissions aluminium recycling centre

Germany – Hannelore Kraft, Prime Minister of the German province of North Rhine-Westphalia, has officially inaugurated the expanded Alunorf aluminium facility at a ceremony in Neuss attended by company representatives, customers and other local officials.

The event marked the commissioning of the twin-chamber melting furnace and processing plant designed to recycle 50 000 tonnes of aluminium scrap per year to feed the Alunorf rolling mills. The Euro 14 million plant is the world’s largest aluminium rolling complex with 2170 employees.

The new Novelis recycling centre will process aluminium manufacturing scrap from customers across Europe as well as from its own facilities. It is the second phase of a recycling expansion project at Alunorf that began in 2009 with the construction of a similar recycling facility funded by joint venture partner Hydro. With the commissioning of this most recent expansion, the combined capacity of the plant’s integrated recycling operations is 100 000 tonnes per year.

Tadeu Nardocci, Senior Vice President of Novelis and President of Novelis Europe, commented at the ceremony: ‘This new facility brings benefits for the environment, our customers, our employees and the economy of the region. Investments such as this one are a key component of our global commitment to increasing recycled metal input to 80% by 2020.’