The world has moved to consider the sustainable and greener options available to reduce the effects of climate change and preserve for the future.
Heavy industries, such as the aluminium industry, have been put under pressure by the demands of consumers, governments, and their own company values to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Zahra Awan* spoke about Hydro’s plans for greener initiatives in North America with Mike Stier, Vice President of Strategy and Finance for Hydro Extrusion North America and Eivind Kallevik, Executive Vice President for Hydro Aluminium Metal.
One key development of Hydro, seen in 2021, was the ‘state of the art recycling plant in Michigan’. Is there anything you can inform us about?
Eivind Kallevik: “This plant is vital for Hydro and recycling of the future. It will be a leading state of the art recycling plant that will produce 120,000 tonnes output per year.
We chose Cassopolis, Michigan due to its ideal location. It is in close proximity to both scrap sources and to customers… the Midwest or the upper Midwest is a perfect location because it's close to a lot of the automotive OEM's and OEM suppliers. It is an exciting venture for Hydro, and we are looking forward to its launch as an investment to Hydro’s greener values.”
Does Hydro have any other plans beyond the Michigan plant investment?
Eivind Kallevik: ““One of the things I find extremely exciting about this facility is that it will introduce Hydro CIRCAL to the US, a product that is 75% post-consumer scrap. This scrap comes from old buildings to high voltage cables or cars. We then process it to produce perfectly new high-quality billets.
A low carbon footprint is a very attractive characteristic of aluminium products. With this in mind, the Michigan plant is on track to being the leading plant for low carbon production. In addition, Hydro has and will have more Hydro CIRCAL capacity in the future, both in our Commerce, Texas and Henderson, Kentucky recycling facilities.
‘The Commerce-based plant features state-of-the-art technology that converts scrap metal into extrusion billet. Its annual production capacity exceeds 90,000 metric tons.’ – (https://www.hydro.com/en-BR/about-hydro/hydro-worldwide/north-america/united-states/west/hydro-commerce-tx/)