Novelis builds 400,000 T aluminium recycling plant in Germany

　　U.S.-based rolled aluminium products group Novelis said on Monday it is building a 200 million euro ($259 million) aluminium recycling plant in Germany.

　　Completion of the plant, in Nachterstedt in Saxony-Anhalt in east Germany is scheduled for 2014, it said.

　　The plant will produce 400,000 tonnes of new aluminium ingots annually using scrap including drinks cans, cables, wires and industrial waste, said Tadeu Nardocci, head of Novelis' European unit. Some 200 new jobs will be created.

　　The metal produced will largely go to the giant Alunorf rolling mill in Germany which produces 1.5 million tonnes of rolled aluminium annually and is jointly owned by Novelis and Hydro Aluminium, part of Norwegian group Norsk Hydro.

　　Novelis remains confident that European aluminium demand will continue to grow in 2013 and beyond despite the euro zone debt crisis partly because the metal continues to gain market share because of its lightweight energy-saving properties, Nardocci said.

　　He said the new Nachterstedt plant would provide a step forward in the company's strategy of using 80 percent recycled aluminium in its output by 2020, currently the level is about 30 percent.

　　Germany's aluminium industry has been struggling in the face of the country's high electricity prices, with the future of several plants in doubt.

　　But aluminium recycling only uses about 5 percent of the energy needed for primary aluminium production from concentrates so high energy prices were not a handicap for the plant's German location, Nardocci said.

　　Novelis is a unit of Indian group Hindalco Industries .