Hydro opens new aluminium recycling plant
From left: Emilie LaGrow, village manager Cassopolis; Hilde Merete Aasheim, president & CEO, Hydro; Dre Kiser, production operator; Tyler First, production operator; Tore Onshuus Sandvik, state secretary, Labour Party; Jen Nelson, chief operating officer, Michigan Economic Development Corporation; and Eivind Kallevik, executive vice president, Hydro Aluminium Metal. Dre and Tyler, who have known each other since first grade, are holding a bumper beam for cars made with recycled aluminium. Image: Hydro
On 16 November, Hydro opened the Cassopolis plant in the US, 18 months after breaking ground at the site. The USD $150 million Michigan plant will produce 120,000 metric tonnes of recycled aluminium annually.
“With the US experiencing a manufacturing renaissance, this is a great day for Cassopolis, Michigan and for Hydro. This project is a key part of our strategy to double the production of our market leading recycled products and to bring more low-carbon aluminium to our American partners,” said president and CEO, Hilde Merete Aasheim.
Hydro expects to produce 120,000 metric tonnes of aluminium extrusion ingot per year at the site. It is the third greenfield recycling plant the company has built in the United States, but the first designed to produce Hydro CIRCAL.
Hydro CIRCAL contains at least 75% post-consumer aluminium scrap, certified by third-party auditors DNV GL, and has a market leading CO2 footprint of just 2.3 kg CO2e per kg aluminium or less.
