Novelis opens new casting line in Italy

Recycling Today
17 May 2013

Atlanta-based aluminum producer Novelis has announced the opening of a new aluminum recycling and continuous casting line at its Pieve Emanuele facility in Milan, Italy.

The company invested about €12 million ($15.44 million) on the expansion, which Novelis says is the largest investment for the company in Italy in the past decade.

The technology included in the new line will allow Novelis to recycle aluminum scrap into aluminum sheet for further processing at its operations in Italy and Germany.

“This investment reflects Novelis’ ongoing commitment to our high recycled content strategy, to the environment and, importantly, to our longstanding operations here in Italy,” says Erwin Mayr, senior vice president of Novelis and president of Novelis Europe. “The opening of the new line not only increases the recycling and casting capacity at the Pieve plant, but it also contributes to the company’s global goal of increasing the recycled content of its products from 43 percent today to 80 percent by 2020.”

Comments Gianmatteo Martinelli, the plant’s manager, “The Pieve plant has over 50 years of experience in rolling and recycling aluminum. This investment and the wider program in Italy will strengthen our operations here while also bringing new sustainable manufacturing processes to the region through Novelis innovation.”

Novelis describes its Pieve Emanuele plant is an integrated recycling, continuous casting, rolling and finishing operation. The aluminum sheet and coil produced at the facility is sold to end users in a number of industrial and construction markets.

The Pieve plant also supplies aluminum sheet to Novelis plants in Bresso, Italy, and in Germany, where it is processed into pre-painted, textured and bright finish material for use in transportation, construction and industrial applications such as roofing, architectural cladding and domestic appliances.

The continuous casting equipment was developed by Novelis PAE, a Novelis group company that provides casting and molten metal treatment systems for aluminum producers around the world.