Hydro celebrates the centenary of Grevenbroich aluminium site

<p>On August 22, Hydro celebrates the centenary of its aluminium site in Grevenbroich, Germany. The foundation stone for the Erftwerk smelter was laid on August 22, 1916, which started the long journey of its aluminium site in Grevenbroich. Today, after a century, more than 2000 employees work in this site for Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products division and work on building its future.<br />&nbsp;<br />The centenary was celebrated with a warm welcome onsite for 27 new apprentices joining the rolling plant. Grevenbroich Plant Manager Christoph Budde of Rolled Products along with City Mayor Klaus Kr&uuml;tzen and High Purity Managing Director Berthold Lukat welcomed them as "Centennial Apprentices".</p> <p><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/hydro%20centenary.jpg" alt="News" width="509" height="196" /></p> <p>The Erftwerk aluminium smelter was commissioned on December 12, 1917 and it was in operation until September 2, 1980, when it closed operation in its last furnaces. The industrial site in Grevenbroich had been working full-fledged and offered good substitutes for the workers in Erftwerk to keep a job. A number of them joined the rolling mill next door or migrated to the Rheinwerk smelter in Neuss.<br /><br />Currently, Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products run with a workforce of around 2,000 is the largest employer by far in this site. The site has become the home for a number of diversified new production facilities over the years.<br />&nbsp; <br />&bull; Real Alloy Germany GmbH(currently called Aleris) is a long-standing recycling plant with about 170 employees in production, and a reputed&nbsp; supplier of recycled aluminium.<br />&bull; The Tokai Erft-Carbon GmbH (started as VAW Erft-Carbon) with around 180 employees manufactures large-format graphite electrodes for use in the electric steel industry, taking the former Erftwerk anode operations into a new era.<br />&bull; Hydro Aluminium High-purity has a workforce of 60 employees at this location, a leading global provider of refined, high-purity aluminium.</p>