French secondary aluminum producer Affinage applies for insolvency

Oetinger's French subsidiary, Affinage de Lorraine, located at Gorcy, also applied for insolvency July 30, legal firm Kebekus and Zimmermann, which is acting as temporary insolvency administrators for Oetinger, told Platts in an email this week.

Affinage, which produces about 50,000 mt/year of foundry alloys, has gone into receivership and will undertake a six-month observation period from July 30-January 30 next year, according to official legal documents. Oetinger filed for temporary insolvency June 27 and the decision over whether the company will officially go into insolvency will be made September 1.

The company, one of the largest secondary aluminum producers in Europe, has four German sites, in Hanover, Berlin, Neu-Ulm and Weissenhorn. Affinage de Lorraine was not included in the original insolvency measures. The company is estimated to be currently producing around 300,000 mt/year of aluminum alloy.

Oetinger is not alone in facing financial difficulties after battling months of low margins.

Scrap processor and aluminum alloy and stainless steel producer Scholz said July 16 that it would restructure its business activities because of "difficult market conditions in the recycling industry."

Scholz said, in a statement issued July 26 it had developed a concept to focus on its core business and from August it would begin to implement the measures, some of which it has already begun. Market sources say Scholz plans to exit the secondary aluminum producing and trading business and that its 60,000 mt/year secondary aluminum plant at Stockach, Germany is up for sale and its 50,000 mt/year unit at Tatabanya, Hungary, which produces cast alloys from both primary and secondary aluminum has shut down after failing to find a buyer.