Trimet expands aluminium recycling facility in Germany

German aluminium producer Trimet has expanded the group's recycling capacity by installing a new rotary furnace at its Gelsenkirchen plant in west Germany.

The furnace can melt up to 200t of aluminium scrap per day and has a load capacity of 40t. The new equipment was installed on 15 February and is currently being ramped up to full capacity, Trimet said.

The firm declined to specify the exact size of the capacity increase after the installation of the new furnace but said the expansion at Gelsenkirchen is "significant".

Trimet operates three recycling facilities in Germany — at Gelsenkirchen, Harzgerode and Essen — and the group had a combined recycling capacity of 250,000t in the financial year ending 30 June 2018.

"Around 90pc of the aluminium in circulation is recycled, and the total quantity of recycled light metal continues to increase as a result of increasing demand. So it is only logical for us to consistently invest in expanding our capacities and modernising our plants," said chairman of Trimet Philipp Schlüter.

The new furnace will replace two of the three existing furnaces at the plant. The infrastructure and exhaust system of the secondary smelter was also modernised and expanded.

The new furnace is energy-efficient and also increased the recovery rate of aluminium scrap. The Gelsenkirchen plant processes a number of different aluminium scrap grades — dross, incinerated scrap, and the whole range of primary and obsolete scrap material. The scrap is sourced from the German domestic market.

Gelsenkirchen produces secondary alloys for the automotive, electrical and machine-building industries.

In November last year, Trimet shifted to use more aluminium scrap as feedstock amid tight alumina supply. It said at the time that its primary aluminium production would resume in early 2019, but the group declined to comment today on whether primary operation has normalised.

Trimet's German operations produced 625,000t of primary and recycled aluminium in the financial year ending on 30 June 2018. The group's output in France was 140,000t for the same period.