Norsk Hydro has announced that it will build a new remelt facility at its aluminium extrusion plant in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, with an annual capacity of 90,000 tonnes. Hydro’s extrusion plant in Hungary is the largest in Europe, having six presses and extensive fabrication and surface treatment capabilities.

As per the report, the new remelt facility, which involves the total investment of EUR 88 million, is expected to commence production in the first quarter of 2024.

The facility will allow the plant to take back production scrap and create closed loops. In a closed loop, production scrap from customers like the automotive tier-one suppliers is collected and sent back directly to the remelt plant. Hydro’s new remelt facility adjacent to the extrusion plant will also remove transportation hassle.

Hydro’s Hungarian extrusion plant serves many automotive customers, focusing on e-mobility. The automotive components made in the plant include crash management systems such as bumper beams and crash boxes, as well as many structural parts of the car body like side sill inserts, side beams, and battery housings and structures.

Commenting on the construction of new remelt facility, Frank Iepema, Managing Director of Hungarian operations, said, “We are building a state-of-the art remelt facility using the best available technology and creating more than 70 new jobs in our company.”

He also said, “Offering local remelt capacity and minimizing transport are important steps to support, in particular, our automotive customers in their sustainability efforts. With the new remelt facility, we can offer the full range of processes from one location to the benefit of our customers.”