Novelis resumes purchase of cans on spot market

Aluminium recycling firm Novelis has resumed purchasing cans on the spot market after temporarily stopping earlier this year.

The company had placed restrictions on can purchases for its 130,000 tonne capacity plant in Warrington during the early months of 2012. The move was prompted by a low demand for aluminium sheet, coupled with an excess supply of post-consumer cans in late 2011. Cans from contracted suppliers continued to be accepted.

Novelis national recycling manager Andy Doran, who has recently been promoted to an as-yet-unnamed role within the company, confirmed that the temporary restriction had been in place.

But, he revealed that as of March 2012, trading at the Warrington plant has returned to normal.

Mr Doran said: With regard to our temporary restriction on spot purchasing, this has now ceased and the plant is running at full capacity.

The purchasing restriction occurred as, during the last three months of 2011, we experienced some customer de-stocking of can sheet in Europe, partly caused by a normal seasonal slowdown for our aluminum can sheet business and at the same time received a large amount of UK used beverage cans particularly following the Christmas holiday season.

80%

Despite the glitch, Novelis is planning to invest in collection technology in order to process more aluminium cans in order to meet its commitment to include 80% recycled content in its aluminium sheet product by 2020.

Mr Doran explained: Overall the company is expanding its footprint across the globe and we have got a target to include 80% recycled content in our product by 2020 and to build on the recycling initiatives we have established.

The 80% target is challenging, our current performance is probably somewhere in the region of the mid 30s so to try and reach 80% is a big aim. We will be working closely with our customers and also to promote post consumer collections of aluminium cans.

Changes

Andy Dorans promotion comes amid a number of developments for the company on the international front, including significant investments overseas in emerging markets including China and Brazil.

Mr Doran confirmed that he would be taking on more corporate duties within the company in his new role. He said: There have been a lot of changes over the last five or six months at the company. I have changed role from national manager to a full time corporate sustainability role. My personal role will now be based less on the procurement of aluminium cans, and more to help the company meet its ambitions to grow metals recycling.

Mr Doran has been Novelis Recyclings national recycling manager since April 2006, having headed up Defras local authority waste performance team and chaired the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) for two years. Last month he was also elected as chairman of the Resource Association (see letsrecycle.com), the trade body for organisations in the reprocessing and recycling sector.

Mr Doran confirmed that he has the support of Novelis for the Resource Association job: The role is in line with my work at Novelis. The direction the Resource Association want to go is to take forward how materials are handled, and that is very much what the company is keen to get involved with, so they support me in that role.

Target

This week, Novlise also announced that it has signed an agreement to build an automotive sheet manufacturing facility in China. The plant, in Changzhou City, in the Jiangsu Province of China represents Novelis manufacturing facility in the Asian country. The company has also invested in expanding its aluminium recycling plant in Pindamonhangaba, Brazil, increasing the facilitys capacity from 200,000 to around 390,000 tonnes per year.