Interviews

“I´m sure 2021 will be a truly successful year for the aluminium industry”, André E. Barten, President & CEO of the Achenbach Group

INTERVIEWEE
interview Image
Category
Interview
Date
25-Jan-2021
Source
AL Circle
Detail

André E. Barten is President & CEO of the Achenbach Group, leading the family company in the 8th generation. He studied mechanical engineering and business administration and is an award winner in 2021 of the famous ‘Social Market Economy Award’ of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Together with his team he was awarded the Handelsblatt Diamond Star Award 2019 in the category ‘Best Industrial Solution 4.0 – Smart Solution’ for the Achenbach OPTILINK System. As part of the Industry Advisory Board of the Cluster of Excellency ‘Internet of Production’ of the RWTH Aachen, André E. Barten is engaged in various activities around the digitalization of production technology.

Read the interview to know his projection for the 2021 aluminium industry.

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AlCircle: How do you anticipate the year 2021 for the global aluminium industry after all the pandemonium in 2020 due to the COVID-19?

Mr André E. Barten: I´m sure 2021 will be a truly successful year for the aluminium industry. Even more so since last year, rethinking on a large scale has taken place in our industry to address the challenges of sustainable production, market disruptions, and the possibility of improvement by innovation.

AlCircle: Do you think with the gradual revival of the global manufacturing industries, Achenbach as a system provider of non-ferrous metal rolling mills will have better business grounds in 2021?

Mr André E. Barten: 2020 was not all that bad. We achieved record revenues due to the long order backlog and did extremely well in managing the impact of the pandemic. Our main production site in Buschhütten, Germany, was not closed at any time. Actually, a mixture of intensive prevention measures and a little bit of luck helped us emerge relatively unscathed up to now.

In 2021, we see many new plants emerging in India, China and also Europe. There is an enormous demand for sustainable packaging solutions, battery foil is needed, especially in Europe, and high strength aluminium solutions will push strip business to a new level of competitiveness.

AlCircle: Could you please share your plans for new expansions, investments and developments in 2021?

Mr André E. Barten: At Achenbach, we are definitely setting clear signals towards future challenges by specific investments in our production site.

Our new Achenbach Technology Center, which just opened last year, is designed to bundle the innovation potential and technical know-how between the different disciplines at Achenbach i.e. mechanics, automation and digital solutions to create a new experience and accelerate product development through simulation.

The Campus Buschhütten, built last year by our Family Holding Company as a result of my father’s efforts, aims at creating a network between scientific, academic and industrial activities developing modern production technology for future workforce, particularly with regard to our ‘dual’ student program and apprenticeship. It will soon be in full operation.

AlCircle: Are there any projects or new technologies currently in the planning stage?

Mr André E. Barten: Of course, we are constantly searching for innovative solutions according to our customers´ needs, which involve new technologies throughout all business units.

For example, the new Achenbach OPTIMILL 6-high for AlMg6,7,8+ processing will commence operation in 2021. Here we are talking about cutting edge technology in one of Europe’s biggest cold mills designed to set new boundaries of aluminium as a stiff, reliable, recyclable and lightweight element for many industries.

Also, this year, we will introduce a new flatness measuring system inside slitting machines directly connected to the mill operation. The idea of tracking flatness from one production step to another and influencing offline flatness in a closed loop concept will become reality.

Last but not least, let me mention the major greenfield production plant for battery foil, which we are currently establishing in Hungary, the first new aluminium foil production facility of this size in Europe for decades. Achenbach’s integrative solution is benchmark and blueprint of producing battery foils with highest quality assurance and highest productivity.

AlCircle: How do you relate to Achenbach’s cloud-based platform OPTILINK® is performing as the best in the industry?

Mr André E. Barten: The OPTILINK® IIoT-plattform was first introduced a few years ago. Since then, we have successfully connected many plants and equipment around the globe. Today, we can support our customers not only with Achenbach machinery but also with third party installations to improve their production and productivity, track their emissions, certify their products and monitor their supply chain technically.

AlCircle: Technology for Future Concepts – What is Achenbach’s insight for 2021?

Mr André E. Barten: Our future is green, lean and digital. All our products are designed to meet these demands and somehow enable our customers to become better at following these criteria: reducing carbon footprint, optimizing the entire production and connecting machinery and people. 

AlCircle: As specialized in complex technology, what message Achenbach tends to deliver to the non-ferrous metal industry and precisely the Aluminium sector for 2021 and ahead?

Mr André E. Barten: Let us work together for a sustainable future in the Aluminium Industry – join the GLAFCO Conference later this year to share your view on the important topics of our time. If we manage to connect ourselves to promote the unique properties of Aluminium strip and foil, Aluminium industry can be even more successful tomorrow.

But it´s not only anticipating what lies ahead, it is about taking proactive steps and developing innovative technologies that will form the basis of future Aluminium production.

We try to address our carbon footprint and promote a lifestyle among the workforce that is geared towards greater sustainability. But while these efforts do matter, it is through our products that we will make the biggest positive long-term environmental impact – in rolling and slitting, in emission filtering and recycling, in machine learning.

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