Novelis, the leading aluminium rolling and recycling group, has announced the completion of its two-year, US$400 million expansion programme in South Korea.
According to Novelis, the expansion of its plants in Yeongju and Ulsan increases the company’s production capacity in the region by more than 50 percent, to approximately 1 million tonnes of aluminium sheet per year.
“Investing further in Korea has been a key element in the company’s global strategy,” says Phil Martens, president and CEO of Novelis Inc.
“Asia is the largest and fastest growing region in the world for aluminium, and this expansion allows us to maintain our leadership in this dynamic region across key markets such as beverage cans, consumer electronics and automobiles.”
Novelis began the expansion of its aluminium rolling and recycling facilities in 2011 to meet the rising demand for flat rolled aluminium in high value-added products in the Asian market.
The expansion includes a hot rolling finishing mill, cold rolling mill, pusher furnace, high-speed slitter, annealing furnaces, in addition to the previously commissioned fully-integrated recycling centre at Yeongju, opened in October 2012.
According to the company, this new operation is the largest aluminium beverage can recycling centre in Asia, with the capacity to produce 265,000 tons of sheet ingot.
The Yeongju Recycling Center is one of a series of recycling and casting expansion projects launched by Novelis over the past two years to increase its recycling and casting capacity to 2.1 million tons globally by 2015.
The expansion contributes to the company’s aggressive push to reach its global target of 80 percent recycled content in products by 2020.
