China Hongqiao Group and Scholz Recycling JV to start a recycled aluminium producing plant in 2021

According to a recent report, the world’s top private-sector Chinese aluminium maker China Hongqiao Group will put a secondary aluminium plant into operation at its home province in Shandong at the end of 2021.

The Group said it is a joint project with Germany’s Scholz Recycling. The facility will be located in an industrial park in Zouping and will process 500,000 tonnes per year of aluminium scrap, reducing average annual carbon emission by 1.9 million tonnes.

Like other aluminium producers in China, Hongqiao Group is looking forward to using more scrap and tap cleaner power sources for the energy-intensive smelting process to cut environmental footprint and lower emissions.

Already in March, the Group announced that it would publish lower carbon emission target and the avenues to achieve it at the end of 2021. Also, the firm has started working with some of the top domestic and international institutions to formulate its carbon-reduction plan as it is under tremendous pressure to begin reducing emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060.

Scholz holds 25 per cent of the joint venture with Hongqiao, which was established last year. The JV is also building facilities to dismantle and recycle vehicles that have reached the end of their lives. This project is estimated to come into operation in June 2022 and will be able to process 100,000 vehicles per year.