Wednesday 19 January 2022

Novelis to build $365m aluminium recycling centre

Novelis has announced it will invest $365 million (£268m) to build a highly advanced recycling centre for automotive parts in North America.

It will have an annual casting capacity of 240,000 tonnes of sheet ingot, helping reduce the company's carbon emissions by more than one million tons every year.

The new recycling facility will be built adjacent to Novelis' existing automotive finishing plant in Guthrie, Kentucky, enabling the company to grow its closed-loop recycling programmes.

Through closed-loop recycling, Novelis takes back the aluminium remaining after automotive parts are stamped from sheets and remakes it into the same product for new vehicle production.

The new facility - which will be equipped with energy efficient innovations to support the company's goal to reduce energy intensity by 10% by 2026 - will also have the capability to process aluminium from vehicles at the end of their lifecycle.

According to Novelis, 95% of the carbon emissions associated with production will be avoided because using recycled aluminium as input material requires only 5% of the energy used to make primary aluminium.

Steve Fisher, President and CEO of Novelis, Inc said: “Novelis aims to be the world's leading provider of low carbon, sustainable aluminium solutions that advance our business, industry and society toward the benefits of a circular economy.

“Through this investment, we will continue to increase the amount of recycled content in our products, reducing our CO2 emissions and moving us closer to carbon neutrality.”

The facility is expected to be commissioned in 2024.