Page 1 from: Company profile: Jacob Metals Group

COVER STORY

25recyclinginternational.com | May/June | 202224

Quality players –
not volume players

B e h i n d t h e s c e n e s o f t h e J a c o b M e t a l G ro u p

A new brand name, a new logo, a recent

acquisition and, in the pipeline, multi-million-

euro investments in expansion and new tech-

nology. With seven member companies in six

locations – Germany, The Netherlands, France

and UK each having its own unique expertise –

the Jacob Metal Group is strongly positioned

in the global non-ferrous metal recycling busi-

ness. Annual turnover may well hit US$ 1 bil-

lion this year, Recycling International was told

during a recent tour of the company’s main

facilities which started in Hamburg.

also shipping space, container shortage
as well as truck capacity. We’ve all been
dealing with major delays. There is one
example where a container with copper
scrap destined for India got stuck in
Dubai for seven months.’

ADDING VALUE
SJH handles 35 000 to 50 000 tonnes
of non-ferrous scrap per year. While
most of the brass and copper finds its
way to end users in India and China,
aluminium (40% of the total scrap vol-
umes processed at SJH) stays within
Europe, mainly Germany.
Lindhorst is proud of SJH’s aluminium
segregation line. The facility, designed
and developed inhouse using state of
the art solutions, including optical
sorting and X-ray technology. A multi-
million-euro investment necessary to
achieve higher quality scrap.
‘We’re not volume players,’ says
Lindhorst. ‘We’re quality players.
That’s the culture at SJH at Jacob
Metal Group and I stand for that; we
live quality.
Simple metal trading hardly has a
future for bigger companies, Lindhorst
believes. ‘Not in Europe, not in India,
not anywhere. There is more and
more transparency in this business so
if you want to compete and survive
you have to add value. Adding value
is exactly what we’re doing here.’

ANOTHER LINE
The next step in SJH’s search for high-
er quality is a second segregation
facility, planned to be up and running
by the end of the year. The investment
will boost the efficiency of company’s
sorting abilities.

Lindhorst: ‘This line will have an
important role in R&D and will further
improve sorting efficiency. ‘The facility
will be able to treat increased blended
mix volumes, taking out the aluminium
before it ends up in the smelter and is
lost. So cleaner fractions and nothing
lost.’

Hamburg is covered with 10 cm of
snow on this final day in March and
the local radio station is warning of
slippery roads while also announcing
that coronavirus restrictions are slowly
but surely being lifted across
Germany. The softening of the rules
does not yet apply to private compa-
nies, as I find out on arrival at the
gates of Siegfried Jacob Hamburg
(SJH).
In a special cabin at the entrance, my
body temperature is checked. When
that’s done, the door opens automati-
cally and I’m allowed to enter the
facility and office building.
‘Our Covid protection programme is

still in place,’ says SJH’s managing
director Achim Lindhorst. ‘We’ve had
several cases where truck drivers mea-
sured ‘fever’. You don’t want that so
we do our utmost to keep the virus
out of our company. It’s still standard
procedure that the team is tested
twice weekly.’

HURDLES AND HEADACHES
The pandemic has had a serious
impact on some parts of Jacob Metal
Group’s business, as it has on the
whole sector, says Lindhorst. ‘Here at
SJH we’ve seen turnover shrink by
20%. The good news is that metal
prices have gone up 45% in a year

which offers at least some compensa-
tion.’
Even so, there remain other issues,
with the conflict in Ukraine being the
biggest concern. ‘The war is having a
major impact on the automotive
industry. Crucial cables for cars are
made in Ukraine but since the supply
has stopped, car production is also
affected with chip shortage being one
of the key factors. And this affects
other businesses. For example, there
is less production scrap coming into
recyclers.’
As for logistics, the whole supply chain
is ‘a mess’, Lindhorst observes. ‘A short-
age of truck drivers is one issue, but

Achim Lindhorst: ‘I can compete only if I add value.’

WHAT’S IN A NEW NAME?
Globally active and regionally rooted, the Jacob
Metal Group is among the world’s leading family-
owned metal recycling companies. The passion for
metal in some parts of the company goes way back
to the 17th century.
JMG was founded in 1953 by German Siegfried
Jacob and is still in the hands of the Jacob family,
now led by second generation Dr. Hans-Eckhard
Jacob. JMG consists of seven companies: Siegfried
Jacob Metallwerke, Nickelhütte Aue and Siegfried
Jacob Hamburg (Germany), Jacomij Metalen and
Jacomij Electronics Recycling (The Netherlands),
Ireland Alloys (UK), and Aciers Inoxydables
Spéciaux (France).
JMG’s concepts are based on the ‘almost unlimit-
ed’ recyclability of non-ferrous metals, with each
plant having its own special field in which it plays a
leading role. On a total area of more than 850 000
m², spread over six locations across Europe, JMG
employs some 1 000 people. The company’s servic-
es range from classic non-ferrous metal trading up
to the recycling of complex industrial waste using
the latest recycling systems and technology.
The recent rebranding to Jacob Metal Group
reflects the firm’s ambition to present itself more
effectively as one group and one global market
player. ‘The past couple of years, which have been
challenging for the whole sector, made clear to us
that the only way we can handle the tasks ahead of
us is together. By taking this step we increase the
visibility of the Jacob Metal Group to the outside
world as one of the key international players in its
field of expertise, with the individual companies
keeping their own name and DNA,’ being the com-
mon thinking of all mds.
JMG is not only bringing commodity trade under
one brand name, it is also combining the technical
strengths of the individual companies of JMG in
order to further improve quality and offer custom-
ers ‘even better solutions’. In addition, the compa-
ny has founded the Jacob Metal Academy to
enhance management and leadership skills within
the company, and train young recycling talents.

FACTS & FIGURES –
SIEGFRIED JACOB
HAMBURG
• Founded: 1987
• Location: Glinde, Schleswig-

Holstein (Germany)
• Managing director: Achim

Lindhorst
• Turnover: EUR 100 million
• Workforce: 50
• Specialises in: Processing and

global trade of non-ferrous
metal scrap, heat-resistant
steels, nickel alloys and ingot
metals

A U T H O R Martijn Reintjes

Jacob Metal Group’s managing directors, from left to right:
Henning Reuter (Siegfried Jacob Metallwerke), Henry Sobieraj (Nickelhütte Aue), Achim
Lindhorst (Siegfried Jacob Hamburg), Dirk Wittmann (Siegfried Jacob Metallwerke) and
Erik van den Heuvel (Jacomij Metalen & Jacomij Electronics Recycling).