“We see the demand for aluminium products with a high recycling share across most of our markets, particularly in the automotive industry, the beverage cans sector, as well as the building & construction”, Moritz Hansen, Head of Communication & Marketing, Speira

An aspiring person, Moritz Hansen is in charge of communication and marketing at Speira, one of the most exciting companies within the aluminium industry. Since 2016, he has made his way in the aluminium sector.   Hansen earned an Exec MBA from Amsterdam Business School as well as a Master of Arts in Political Communication. He also serves on Speira's Executive Management Team, responsible for Marketing, Communication, and Sustainability.

AlCircle: What measures have you initiated or already undertaken to declare Speira net zero by 2045? Don't you think this commitment is too ambitious?

Moritz Hansen: We are building our net zero roadmaps on four key pillars. We will constantly reduce our direct emissions (Scope 1) and indirect emissions (Scope 2) through electrification and alternative fuels, through the increased use of renewable energy for our processes and our continued drive to make our operations more and more energy efficient. The biggest portion of our CO2 emissions arises along the value chain (Scope 3). We work diligently on our metal input mix and the development of recycling-friendly alloys (RFAs) to increase the share of secondary aluminium to be used in our processes. Additionally, we are developing a sustainable procurement strategy to push our suppliers on sustainability. 

We believe our targets are ambitious but achievable.

AlCircle : It's no secret that the production and consumption of secondary aluminium are on the rise. Which manufacturing sector will be the demand driver for secondary aluminium in Europe and globally?

Moritz Hansen: Yes, we see the demand for aluminium products with a high recycling share across most of our markets, particularly in the automotive industry, the beverage cans sector, as well as the building & construction and other specialities markets. We are in the middle of a major transformation of our industry towards recycling. 

We are convinced that with the recent acquisition of Real Alloy Europe and the various other investments in recycling capacities, we are taking across our plants, we are well placed to meet the increased demands across all markets. This is confirmed by the increasing sales of our third-party certified product label ORBIS 75, which guarantees a minimum of 75% external scrap. They have increased heavily between 2022 and this year. And we are still early in the year.

AlCircle: How do you forecast the year 2023 for the global aluminium industry in the short and long term? 

Moritz Hansen: General market sentiment in the first two quarters has been rather moderate across most of the markets we serve. All in all, we expect an increased demand during the second half of 2023.

AlCircle: How would you rate your performance for 2022? Could you like to share the production break-up of your products? What areas do you think Speira needs to improve or could have done better? 

Moritz Hansen: When we started our transformation journey in 2019, we set out a four-year improvement program with the ambition to build a robust company. We can state with a portion of pride that we successfully completed our improvement program in 2022, which confirms the good performance development we have had throughout the last years. We constantly increased our performance despite macroeconomic challenges and disruptions in the global supply chains as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine as well as increasing energy prices and inflation rates. Despite this positive performance development, we must admit that the volatility and uncertainty we are facing constantly challenge our capabilities to predict market developments. The speed of market changes has increased strongly throughout the last three years.

AlCircle: What are your investment plans for 2023 concerning new technology development, installation of new machinery and expansions, if any?

Moritz Hansen: On April 1, we completed the acquisition of Real Alloy Europe. This acquisition is a major step in our transformation to becoming a leading aluminium rolling and recycling company and an industry benchmark in sustainability. With the acquired five facilities, three in Germany and two in Norway, we increase our recycling capacity to 650,000 tonnes annually. This will enable us to enhance our ability to deliver low-carbon products to our customers. Additionally, we take another big step on our decarbonization path, with the target to be net zero by 2045.

AlCircle: How would you describe the atmosphere and culture at Speira?

Moritz Hansen: In Speira, we believe in the power of teams, the commitment to strong ownership, the drive that we can create through our entrepreneurial spirit and the fundamental need to build trust. I am convinced Speira is one of the most exciting companies within the aluminium industry to work for these days. We successfully took the first major step on our transformation journey throughout the last four years to build a robust company. Now we are increasing the speed to bring the company to the next level – both financially and from a sustainability perspective.