Norsk Hydro’s Rackwitz Recycling Centre in Leipzig, Germany intends to expand production of its HyForge product, leading to increased use of post-consumer (secondary) aluminum scrap.
The company currently produces around 95,000mt of HyForge, a secondary extrusion billet, which serves the automotive and construction industry. With this new investment of close to €40mn ($47.45mn), the aluminum producer intends to start a new 25,000-30,000mt per year HyForge billet plant by the end of Q1 2023.
Since this product is made of recycled material, it is considered to meet Hydro Reduxa standards, which is guaranteed to produce less than 4mt of CO2 per mt of aluminum metal. These small-diameter, high-quality billets can be directly cast into forged automotive parts, Hydro noted.
Hydro is also restarting its extrusions plant in Sjunnen, Sweden, which has been idle for a few years. Increased demand for structural material has justified the company bringing the 10,000mt per year facility back online. The plant will increase Hydro Extrusions Sweden’s capacity by 20pc and the end-product will contain a considerable amount of recycled material.