Spiera announced several investments to increase recycling capacity at its facilities in Germany and Norway. The company is known for recycling a variety of post-consumer aluminum scrap, serving the automotive, packaging, transportation, and other markets.
“We take a holistic view of our contribution to a functioning circular economy,” explained Ralf Köring, Head of Recycling Services at Speira. “That’s why we don’t just look at the pure, easy-to-recycle scraps, but also at the more difficult lower grades and by-products. Wherever aluminum is in it, we want to get the maximum out of it and put it back into the cycle.”
Germany
Speira is investing €40 million to expand recycling capacity at its plant in Rheinwerk, Germany. This will also reduce the ecological footprint of the plant, achieving a savings of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year compared to primary production of the same quantity of aluminum.
“We want to become the number 1 in aluminium recycling in Europe,” explained Boris Kurth, head of the can business at Speira as well as the recycling and foundry operations at the Rheinwerk. “Over the past 20 years, we have already built furnaces with leading recycling capacity in Europe and Europe’s most modern sorting plant for UBC scrap, substituting the highly energy-intensive primary production of aluminium. We are consistently pursuing this path and emphasizing our commitment to the circular economy with the fourth recycling furnace at Rheinwerk.”
The project involves the installation of a new furnace and the remodeling of the casting plant. The new recycling furnace will be used to melt aluminum alloys that are processed into beverage cans.
Rheinwerk is the site of a phased out smelter. In addition to expanding recycling, the company is converting a portion of the phased-out areas into a new scrap warehouse. This will provide storage space and facilities for sampling incoming scrap and preparing it for melting. The storage areas for skimmings are also being expanded in the foundry.
“The long halls allow us to think and plan big. This huge new scrap warehouse creates space for the ‘feed’ for all of our recycling furnaces — not just the new one,” said Kurth. “We need the sampling of those types of scrap that have already completed one or more life cycles. These ‘post-consumer scraps’ are a source that we want to utilize even more.”
The furnace will be built in the Rheinwerk facility in 2025. Production is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2026.
Speira is also investing €11 million to upgrade its plants in Grevenbroich and Töging, Germany. Both sites will receive two new furnaces each, which will be used to replace existing units. This will specifically increase capacity for recycling “low grade” scrap, such as heavily contaminated scrap and dross produced during the melting process.
The project includes the installation of the four new furnaces, as well as charging machines, suction hoods, thermal afterburners, piping, and other infrastructure. The use of state-of-the-art burner technology and automatic charging will enable a higher metal yield at both of the sites. In addition, work will be even easier and safer for employees, because the individual components are easily accessible for maintenance, the molten metal can be tapped with the furnace doors closed, and the wheel loader and forklift traffic in front of the furnaces is minimized. Naturally, the selected model also meet the highest environmental standards for new systems. In particular, the new suction and burner technology reduces carbon emissions. Moreover, the furnaces are designed to be operated with hydrogen in the future.
In terms of energy efficiency, the new furnaces are a threefold improvement. They provide increased throughput, with each tonne of recycled aluminum saving up to 95% of the energy required to produce one tonne of primary aluminum. The modern burner and afterburner technology ensure optimum energy yield from the natural gas used. At the same time, the adhering impurities of the low-grade scraps are used as combustibles in the melting process, and the input spectrum for these grades in particular is even greater in the new furnaces. In addition, the optimized furnace design looses even less heat thanks to the automatic charging process and tapping with closed furnace doors.
The four furnaces will be delivered and installed one after the other. Production is scheduled to start in May 2025 (first furnace Grevenbroich), October 2025 (first furnace Töging), May 2026 (second furnace Grevenbroich), and October 2026 (second furnace Töging).
Norway
Speira is investing over NOK 400 million in a new furnace at its Vestfold Plant in Holmestrand, Norway.
“This investment secures a large number of jobs in Holmestrand for the foreseeable future,” said Jon Gaasholt, plant manager at Speira Holmestrand. “The old furnace has been in place for 50 years, and the new one is expected to last at least another 50 years. This is very good news.”
With the new furnace, Speira Holmestrand will receive 22,000 tons more scrap every year. This means that around half of the company’s production will be based on recycled scrap. This will reduce the carbon footprint in Holmestrand by 150,000 tons per year. The furnace will also reduce NOx emissions and odors from the site. Furthermore, it will prepare the site for a future transition to non-fossil energy that will further reduce emissions.
“We have a stated goal of setting the standard for sustainability in our industry,” said Gaasholt. “It is about being strongly connected to the community where we work and live, and being conscious of the role we can play in securing a sustainable future. Optimization of production, processing, and recycling are key in this context.”
This furnace installation project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2026.
