The Yeongju recycling centre is part of a multi-year, $400 million expansion of Novelis' operations in Korea.
According to the aluminium recycler, Asia is the world's fastest growing market for rolled aluminum used to create beverage cans, cars and consumer electronics.
"The opening of the Yeongju recycling and casting facility marks an important milestone in our sustainability commitment," said Phil Martens, Novelis president and chief executive
Martens: "Combined with our other recycling operations worldwide, this new state-of-the-art facility makes Novelis the world's leading recycler of aluminum, saving valuable natural resources while enabling our customers to create world-class products with a much smaller environmental footprint."
The firm also said that as a key component of the company's sustainable business model, Novelis has committed to dramatically increasing the recycled content of its rolled aluminum products to 80% by 2020.
Recycling plan
This project represents the first major step in the company's plan to increase its recycling capacity to 2.1 million tonnes by 2015, according to the firm.
The new facility will have an annual capacity of 265,000 tonnes, and will increase the company's total consumption of recycled aluminum to over 1.4 million tons per year.
Novelis said that other significant recycling expansions are already underway in Brazil and Germany, along with additional investments worldwide.
"The commissioning of our new recycling and casting facility is a testament to the diligent efforts of the Novelis Asia management team and the dedication of our highly skilled Novelis workforce here in South Korea," said Shashi Maudgal, president of Novelis Asia. "With our aggressive expansion plans, we are well positioned to meet the rising demand for rolled aluminum."
Novelis expects to be a major buyer of aluminum scrap throughout Asia due to this investment. Novelis also said that used aluminum beverage cans and other aluminum scrap will be processed by the new facility for re-melting and casting into sheet ingot that will be rolled at the company's Yeongju and Ulsan plants.
