16 January/February 2016
C O V E R S T O R Y
‘Closed-loop recycling sounds like an intelligent solution to the recyc-
ling challenge, but it is fraught with operational and commercial dif-
ficulties,’ stated Murat Bayram, European non-ferrous director at scrap
metal major EMR, during Metal Bulletin’s 23rd Recycled Aluminium
Conference held recently in the Spanish capital Madrid. At the event,
it emerged with crystal clarity that, fuelled by an ever-growing hunger
for recycled aluminium, the automotive and beverage can industries in
particular are looking increasingly to in-house and closed-loop scrap.
The global aluminium beverage can manufac-turing industry is booming. Or in the words
of John Revess, director of sustainability at can
manufacturing giant Rexam: ‘When the economy
is good, people drink. When the economy is bad,
people drink a lot.’
Claimed to be the biggest aluminium can pro-
ducer in Europe and South America, and the
second largest in the USA, Rexam manufactures
some 60 billion cans per year. Around 34% of
the company’s sales growth comes from emerg-
ing markets such as Chile, Egypt, Argentina
and Mexico, Revess told his 200-plus audi-
ence at Metal Bulletin’s latest Recycled
Aluminium Conference, held in Madrid.
According to latest figures, the global
can market hit 310 billion units in 2014
and had seen annual 3% growth over
the previous three years, with Brazil
(+11%) as well as China and sub-Saharan Africa
(both +10%) leading the charge.
Beverage cans are the most recycled form of
drinks packaging. The global can recycling
rate is estimated at 70%, with some 2.5 million
tonnes of cans recycled every year and worth
more than Euro 3 billion.
In order to feed growing demand for recycled
aluminium, light metal majors such as Novelis,
Alcoa and Hydro have been investing heavily
in recycling capacity and in closed-loop infra-
structures – not only to supply beverage can
manufacturers but also the construction and
automotive industries.
Lighter car trend
Demand for secondary aluminium has
increased spectacularly in the USA, mainly
thanks to rapidly-growing use of the metal in
car production, noted David Rosenblum, vice
president of non-ferrous at scrap metal major
OmniSource. ‘Secondary automotive produc-
tion is robust,’ he said, adding that this situation
was unlikely to change as rolling mill capac-
ity in the USA ramps up to cater for automo-
tive demand for body sheet given the ‘massive’
orders coming from sectoral giant Ford.
The Ford F150 pick-up truck, launched more
than a year ago and described by Rosenblum as
‘the recycling icon of the future’, contains more
aluminium than ever before and
makes this ver-
sion 300
By Martijn Reintjes
Automotive and beverage can industries challenged by rapidly growing demand for recycled aluminium
Closed-loop supplies ‘negating’ third-party scrap purchases
