Participants in the ground breaking ceremony from left to right: Mauro Spizzo – VP, Hydro Extrusions East; Paul Warton – executive VP, Hydro Extrusions; Tamás Vargha – MP for the city of Székesfehérvár; András Cser-Palkovics – Mayor of Székesfehérvár; Hilde Merete Aasheim – president & CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA; Frank Iepema – managing director, Hydro Extrusion Hungary.

A new aluminum recycling plant by Hydro is now under construction in Székesfehérvár (about 58 km southwest of the capital) after a groundbreaking ceremony held on September 1.

The facility will have an annual capacity of 90,000 tonnes and is expected to start production in Q1 2024.

The total investment in the project, which will create about 80 jobs, is expected to amount to EUR 88 million.

The plant will be built alongside Hydro’s aluminum extrusion facility and it is set to produce advanced alloys for extrusions used in the premium automotive segment. Using only 5% of the energy originally needed to produce the metal, the plant also will provide customers with the opportunity to close the loop by taking back both production scrap and post-consumer scrap, which will be recycled into new products.

“Recycled aluminum is becoming more and more important within the extrusion industry. This new facility is an important investment for a greener future and helps boost Hydro’s sustainability strategy,” says Hilde Merete Aasheim, Hydro’s president & CEO.

The Hungarian extrusion plant mainly serves automotive customers, and the ability to offer “closed loops” is helping carmakers and customers from other industries to reduce their carbon footprint. Closed-loop recycling uses and re-uses materials that can be continuously recycled, without loss of quality and with less energy and resources.

With the recycling operation alongside the extrusion plant, one transportation leg is removed, the supply chain is optimized, and waste is limited to a minimum. The recycled aluminum will go right back into the production of advanced car components, the press release notes.

Paul Warton, executive VP responsible for Hydro Extrusions, notes, “As automotive customers put more emphasis on greener solutions, we are taking this breakthrough step in Hungary to grow the market with advanced products and drive sustainability. We are increasing our recycling capacity in Central and Eastern Europe, ensuring reliable billet supply to our customers and creating possibilities of closing the loop by taking back and recycling production scrap and post-consumer scrap.”

Frank Iepema, Hydro Aluminum Extrusion managing director, adds, “Our customers and their end-customers want products that demand less energy to produce, and that contain more recycled metal. By taking this next step in Hungary, with a state-of-the art remelt plant using the best technology available, we will be able to produce recycled aluminum locally: Hydro Restore."

Hydro Restore is a range of aluminum products made locally from a combination of recycled pre-consumer scrap, recycled post-consumer scrap, and primary aluminum.

Look out for an exclusive interview with Hilde Merete Aasheim, president and CEO of Norsk Hydro ASA, in the upcoming September 9 print edition of the Budapest Business Journal.

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