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Novelis extends its partnership with HES-SO Valais-Wallis, EPFL, and local energy distributor OIKEN to continue the innovative work at the Net Zero Lab Valais. This two-years extension underscores Novelis’ commitment to carbon neutrality and the advancement of sustainable aluminium production.

Since its inception in 2022, the Net Zero Lab Valais, located at Novelis’ Sierre plant, has been focusing on identifying and implementing strategies to achieve carbon neutrality for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030.

At the end of 2025, an electric pusher furnace is expected to begin operations, replacing a gas furnace. The furnace will be fed by hydro power, thus saving approximately 4,500t CO2eq per year and potentially up to 180,000 CO2eq over the furnace’s lifetime.

Likewise, the initiative to use waste heat from the casting process is progressing and already provides heating for nearby buildings. For the first time last winter (2023/2024), the plant recovered more heat than it consumed for building heating.

Looking ahead, the Net Zero Lab Valais is exploring additional opportunities for decarbonizing high temperature melting processes, like oxyfuel, hydrogen, plasma and biomass.

"Extending our partnership with HES-SO, EPFL, and OIKEN is a testament to our shared vision of a more sustainable future. Collectively, we are driving innovation, reducing Novelis’ carbon footprint, and making meaningful progress toward carbon neutrality while also supporting our communities".

Serge Gaudin, Director Automotive Operations Novelis Europe and Plant Manager Sierre

With the extension of the agreement, Novelis aims to continue its holistic approach to decarbonization, exemplified by its Vision 3x30, a transformative strategy aimed at achieving 75% recycled content across the company’s product range, less than 3 tons of CO2 emissions per ton of flat-rolled aluminium shipped, and advancing circularity through first-mover investments by the end of 2030.

About HES-SO

With over 21,000 students, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland is Switzerland’s largest university of applied sciences. Like the eight other public universities of applied sciences, the HES-SO has become a key partner in Swiss education and research over the past 20 years.

About EPFL

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne is one of Europe’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan science and technology institutions.

About OIKEN

With more than 790 million kWh of electricity distributed annually, OIKEN is the largest electricity distributor in the Valais region.

Novelis Inc., a leading producer of flat-rolled aluminium products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminium, proudly announces the production of the world’s first-ever aluminium coil made entirely from 100% recycled, end-of-life automotive scrap. Developed and produced for the European automotive market, this breakthrough marks a significant step toward greater circularity and sustainability in the automotive industry.

This innovative pilot material is suitable for car body outer skin applications, meeting the highest requirements for surface quality and formability. It reinforces Novelis’ commitment to enabling a sustainable aluminium industry while maintaining the highest standards of quality, strength and performance. This achievement is the result of the company’s ongoing journey to constantly increase the amount of recycled content in its products in collaboration with industry partners and automakers.

The aluminium scrap for the 100% recycled automotive aluminium coil was sourced through the Automotive Circularity Platform (ACP), which was initiated together with thyssenkrupp Materials Services, one of the world’s leading mill-independent materials distribution and supply chain service providers. As an open platform, ACP aims to streamline access to high-quality end-of-life material for recycling by digitalizing the market for secondary materials, enhancing supply chain efficiency, and maximizing material recovery from vehicles at the end of the consumer-use cycle.

Automotive customers are constantly looking for ways to decarbonize their products while keeping them light, safe and affordable, and that’s why they turn to us. Producing aluminium from 100% end-of-life vehicle scrap is not only a testament to our dedication to a circular future for aluminium and enhancing the supply of the critical material. It also is a groundbreaking achievement showcasing the potential for significant environmental benefits and the ability to meet the high-performance demands of modern automotive production.

Michael Hahne, Vice President and General Manager, Automotive, Novelis Europe

Novelis is now working to expand the adoption of this technology, enabling automakers to incorporate higher recycled content into future vehicle designs. By increasing industry participation and enhancing the supply chain for end-of-life aluminium scrap, Novelis aims to accelerate the transition to a more circular automotive sector. As a leading sustainable aluminium solutions provider, Novelis already supplies carmakers with products made of up to 85% recycled content, made possible through constant collaboration with customers, closed loop recycling systems for post-production scrap, and the growing collaboration with major suppliers of recyclable materials. We believe expanding the use of end-of-life scrap in aluminium production will further enable the automotive sector to reduce its reliance on virgin materials.

Recycling aluminium is the most efficient way to reduce its carbon footprint, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions by approximately 95% in comparison with primary aluminium production. The introduction of 100% end-of-life recycled aluminium into automotive production has the potential to dramatically lower the industry’s environmental footprint while advancing a more circular economy.

By continuously innovating and investing in expanding recycling capacity, collaborating with industry leaders, we believe Novelis is paving the way for a more sustainable and resource-efficient future in automotive manufacturing. Through these efforts, Novelis seeks to strengthen its position as a preferred partner for automakers seeking high-performance, low-carbon aluminium solutions.

Novelis Inc., a leading sustainable aluminium solutions provider and world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling, today announced that it has successfully tested using hydrogen fuel to power a recycling furnace at its UK plant in Latchford, Warrington.

The tests were carried out as part of a UK government decarbonization programme and in collaboration with Progressive Energy, an independent UK energy company, and required the installation of new burners, regenerators, and furnace lining material. Using hydrogen instead of the same amount of natural gas when operating a melting furnace can reduce CO2e emissions by up to 90%.

Exploring renewable energy sources, such as hydrogen, making first mover investments, and reducing energy intensity are part of our 3x30 vision to advance aluminium as the material of choice with circular solutions.With the significant expansion of our local recycling capacity, we are transforming the Latchford site into a prototype for high-recycled content and decarbonized aluminium production.

Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President, Novelis Inc., and President, Novelis Europe

The use of hydrogen is not common in the aluminium industry today and we are very proud to be one of the pioneers to have tested this new fuel at an industrial scale and in a real-world environment. The results from Latchford will drive further research into the potential deployment of hydrogen in our recycling operations worldwide.

Allan Sweeney, Plant Manager, Novelis Latchford

With safety as the top priority of the hydrogen pilot project, several series of tests were conducted by blending different percentages of hydrogen with natural gas (30%-100%) to evaluate the impact on existing infrastructure, and equipment compatibility. During the trial campaign, several hundred tonnes of 3000 series scrap aluminium alloy were remelted and cast into sheet ingots. In addition, all relevant parameters were measured to assess any impact on the product, process, operating environment, and environmental emissions.

Further downstream processing, including rolling and finishing, will be now completed at other Novelis plants in Europe to establish the real ‘end-to-end’ parameters of a hydrogen-based, recycled alloy production process. Following the full post-trial evaluation and assessments, a report will be released as part of the UK government’s Industrial Fuel Switching programme later this year.

The demonstration project at Novelis Latchford is part of the UK government’s Industrial Fuel Switching Competition programme. Supported with a grant of £4.6 million, as part of the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and the wider regional HyNet project, the programme is designed to support industry to decarbonise their operations through a switch from natural gas to low carbon hydrogen. As the UK’s leading industrial decarbonisation cluster, HyNet will decarbonise industry across the North West and North Wales through the production, transportation and storage of low-carbon hydrogen, and through capturing industry’s carbon dioxide emissions through Carbon Capture Solutions. Novelis has been a partner in the HyNet project since 2017 and is supporting the development of the regional infrastructure project.  

Novelis is also conducting its own technical feasibility studies into the use of hydrogen as a direct replacement for natural gas, and more generally, Novelis research and development teams worldwide continue to investigate the possibility of using plasma and electricity to supply energy to its production plants.

As announced in July 2024, Novelis is investing approximately $90 million to double the recycling capacity for used beverage cans (UBCs) at its plant in Latchford. The project will increase the facility’s UBC recycling capacity by 85 kilotonnes per year and decrease Novelis Europe’s CO2e by more than 350,000 tonnes annually. The project is expected to begin commissioning in December 2026.

Furthermore, as part of its new Novelis 3×30 vision, the company has set new ambitious sustainability targets to achieve by the end of 2030, including increasing recycled content to 75% from today’s 63%, reducing carbon emissions to less than 3 tonnes CO2e per tonne aluminium shipped, and continuing to lead the industry to circularity through first-mover investments. These are in addition to the company’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 or sooner. Along with using higher amounts of recycled content, decarbonization of the company’s melting processes and energy sources are important levers to delivering lower-carbon, highly sustainable aluminium solutions.

Strategic collaboration to provide advanced aluminium solutions to the Aerospace industry

thyssenkrupp Aerospace, one of the world’s leading supply chain management and third-party logistics service providers for the commercial Aerospace industry, and Novelis, a leading sustainable aluminium solutions provider and the world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling, have renewed their strategic partnership through a multi-year agreement.

Under the agreement, Novelis will supply specialized, aerospace-grade aluminium from its facilities in Koblenz, Germany, and Zhenjiang, China, to several thyssenkrupp Aerospace key markets in Europe and Asia. The contract provides for the ongoing supply of premium, aircraft-grade aluminium plates and sheets from Novelis to thyssenkrupp Aerospace, reinforcing Novelis’ strategic importance as a supplier of innovative aluminium products for the aerospace sector.

We are very pleased that our global Aerospace unit is prolonging our partnership with Novelis. Securing a reliable, long-term supply of high-quality aluminium is critical to ensuring that we can consistently meet the needs of our customers. This agreement reinforces our commitment to delivering excellence by ensuring material availability and reliability for our customers’ supply chains, an important part of our Materials-as-a-Service strategy. We look forward to continuing this successful collaboration

Patrick Marous, CEO of Business Unit Solutions at thyssenkrupp Materials Services and responsible for the Aerospace business field

Since the first contract was signed in 2014, our collaboration with thyssenkrupp Aerospace has flourished. We look forward to building on this successful relationship, underlining Novelis’ role as a preferred supplier and continuing to deliver high-quality products that meet the evolving needs of the aerospace industry.

Johan Petry, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Global Aerospace, at Novelis

This long-standing collaboration is an important step in maintaining the well-established relationship between Novelis and thyssenkrupp Aerospace. It strengthens the position of both companies in the global aerospace market, while reflecting their continued commitment to innovation and the provision of high-performance materials to the aerospace industry on a global scale.

In 2011, the bold decision by Novelis to focus the company’s business model on recycling, has led to great investments in increasing recycling capacity and capabilities, including the construction one of the world’s largest aluminium recycling centers that has transformed the aluminium industry. Today, the Nachterstedt Aluminium Recycling Center (NARC) celebrates its 10th anniversary, marking a decade of pioneering innovation and sustainability with Novelis taking the position as a clear recycling leader in the aluminium market.

A Transformative Investment

With a total investment of more than €300 million, NARC was constructed as a state-of-the-art facility capable of recycling up to 400,000 tonnes of aluminium annually. With its geographical central location within Europe, NARC provides high-recycled-content ingots to Novelis Europe’s rolling plants for further processing into low-carbon, innovative aluminium solutions for many key players within the Automotive, Beverage Packaging and Specialties Industries.

At NARC, we can cast aluminium ingots for car bodysides made from 86% scrap. Aluminium ingots for beverage can bodies with a recycling content close to 100% showcase our way of decarbonizing aluminium for consumer goods and our strong ambition towards a fully circular economy.

Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President Novelis and President Novelis Europe

Driving Sustainability and Lower Emissions

Recycling aluminium reduces energy consumption by around 95% compared to primary aluminium production and reduces carbon intensity to a comparable level. In that respect, NARC is lowering carbon emissions by around 3.7 million tonnes of CO2e per year, which not only reduces the plant’s carbon footprint to an enormous extent, but also substantially helps lowering carbon emissions in the downstream aluminium value chain.

We are proud to be able to meet the increasing market demand for high-recycled aluminium solutions, directly contributing to our customers’ carbon reduction and sustainability goals.

Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President Novelis and President Novelis Europe

Continued Recycling Leadership

NARC is not just a facility – it’s a symbol of Novelis’ vision for a circular future. The site makes a decisive contribution to achieving Novelis’ ambitious sustainability goals of becoming the provider of lowest carbon emitting flat-rolled aluminium solutions with less than 3 tonnes of CO2e per tonne aluminium shipped by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2050, or sooner. Advanced sorting technology added at Nachterstedt Recycling plant in 2024 will further optimize the utilization of post-consumer aluminium scrap for high-quality aluminium products. The new technology is expected to avoid the use of around 8,500 tonnes of primary aluminium per year resulting in a reduction of over 80,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions annually. The implementation of this state-of-the-art sorting technology at NARC is projected to reach completion by the end of 2024.

Novelis sets standards to strengthen Germany and Saxony-Anhalt as a location for sustainable aluminum solutions and impressively demonstrates how the circular economy and economic success can go together. As an important employer, Novelis makes a decisive contribution to the economic strength of the region and develops innovative solutions that receive international recognition. Saxony-Anhalt is proud of companies like Novelis, whose commitment contributes to the positive development of our state.

Sven Schulze, Minister of Economic Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt

Raising the Bar for Recycled Content

As NARC celebrates its 10th anniversary, Novelis looks forward to the future, continuing its leadership role in sustainable aluminium production and driving the industry towards a more sustainable, lower-carbon future. Since 2011, Novelis has increased the recycled content in its global product range from 33% to 63%, with a target to achieve 75% by the end of 2030. This milestone reinforces Novelis’ commitment to constantly lower the carbon footprint of its product, aiming towards offering and achieving full circularity in aluminium production.

Novelis announced the swift recovery and restart of its Sierre plant, which was severely impacted by a devastating flood at the end of June. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of both the extended Novelis team and external specialists, the major assets could be restarted at the beginning of this week and are expected to resume production by the end of October.

“In addition to the priority of restarting our system quickly and safely, mitigating the impact on our customers and suppliers during this extraordinary situation has been at the forefront of our business. I am incredibly proud of the speed and flexibility our company has shown, and the resilience and determination of our workforce to overcome adversity and get our assets back up and running in record time.”

Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President Novelis and President Novelis Europe

Following the flood of the city of Sierre that caused extensive damage to the facility, including its casting, rolling and finishing mills, the plant faced significant challenges that impacted the company’s ability to serve its customers from the Sierre plant. Being a global company with operations at 33 locations worldwide, Novelis leveraged its wider European and global network to mitigate the impact on customers caused by the flood. In addition to immediately starting cleaning and restoring the plant in Sierre, Novelis activated company-wide processes and flexibility tools such as rerouting of material and overtime.

“Our team’s commitment and hard work, combined with the support from about 150 external specialists, have enabled us to swiftly recover our plant. Considering the extent of the disruption caused by the floods, this is truly an extraordinary achievement by our teams.”

Serge Gaudin, Plant Manager, Novelis Sierre

Novelis is investing approximately $90 million to double the recycling capacity for used beverage cans (UBCs) at its Latchford plant in the UK. This expansion will increase the facility’s recycling capacity for UBC by 85 kilotonnes per year, a growth of over 100%.

This investment underscores our strong commitment to sustainability as we continue to drive the transformation of the aluminium industry towards full circularity and lead the market with innovative, high-recycled and low-carbon aluminium solutions.

Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President Novelis and President Novelis Europe

The expansion involves constructing a new dross house, three new bag houses, and installing advanced shredding, sorting, de-coating, and melting technologies. These upgrades will boost the plant’s recycling volume and efficiency, resulting in an annual CO2e reduction of more than 350,000 tonnes for Novelis Europe.

The project is expected to begin commissioning in December 2026. Once operational, the facility will be able to recycle 100% of UBCs to be collected under the future UK deposit return scheme. This will create a local, fully circular system that will avoid the need to export scrap exports from the UK.

Novelis is proud to be part of the European Aluminium Packaging Group’s efforts, along with three other European can sheet manufacturers, to work on developing a new market standard with the ultimate goal of having an aluminum beverage can made from up to 100% recycled content.

Four flat-rolled aluminium manufacturers and members of the European Aluminium Packaging Group, Constellium, Elval, Novelis and Speira, have signed an agreement that can help accelerate the way to a new market standard: a standardized can end alloy with high recycled content and substantially lower carbon emissions. Novelis is very happy to be part of an initiative to jointly drive the further decarbonization of the aluminium beverage can.

Visit the EAA site to learn more!

Captured (left to right):
Babis Chaikos, Commercial Senior Director Elval, aluminium rolling division of ElvalHalcor SA
Arnaud Riess, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Global Packaging, Constellium
Alexander Kuzan, VP & GM Beverage & Food Packaging Novelis Europe and Head Global Beverage Packaging Strategy & Marketing
Boris Kurth, Head of Can Business, Speira

Our commitment to decarbonization and the various ongoing sustainability projects in Europe led to a nomination and finalist position in the German Sustainability Award’s ‘Metal industry’ category.

With our strong focus on full circularity and our ambitious decarbonization and sustainability goals, Novelis is a frontrunner in the industry. Our agenda to reduce the carbon footprint of our production by 30% by 2026 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner was very positively recognized at this year´s German Sustainability Award. This, together with our current sustainability lighthouse projects, such as the HyNet hydrogen trial in Latchford, the building of our onsite solar park in Pieve and the diverse collaborations in the automotive sector on end-of-life, convinced a 140-member jury. Novelis Europe’s business efforts of the past year led to a nomination and a position as top 4 finalists in the German Sustainability Award in the “Metal industry” category.

The German Sustainability Award honors pioneering contributions to the transformation to a sustainable future in line with the goals of the 2030 Agenda. As Europe’s biggest award for ecological and social commitment, this nomination is a genuine recognition of our sustainability efforts.

This is a very valuable acknowledgement for our sustainability leadership in the German market and beyond. Together with our customers and partners, we are constantly developing new, high-recycled products and improving the quality of scrap recycling to achieve full circularity. Besides our strong focus on circularity, we set ourselves apart by announcing the most ambitious sustainability goals among our peers and a current average recycled content of 61% across our product portfolio – almost double the market average of 32%. I am very proud of our achievements this year and thank everyone for their impactful contribution to this success!

Emilio Braghi, EVP & President Novelis Europe.

Among the four finalists, Novelis was the last aluminium manufacturer. This year´s German Sustainability Award in the metal industry goes to Swiss Steel company. At ceremony on November 23, we also received our finalist certificate at the ceremony in Düsseldorf, Germany and had the opportunity to exchange with winners and finalists on how to accelerate the transformation all together. We congratulate all winners – it´s good to see so many companies increasing their efforts to progress towards a greener and more sustainable future.

More information on the German Sustainability Award in the category “Metal Industry” (German page): Metallindustrie | Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis

Novelis received the final approval by local authorities to start the construction of its first onsite solar park at the production site in Pieve, Italy. The solar park will reduce carbon emissions by 1,450 tons annually, covering around 12% of the plant’s electricity demand and allowing Novelis to switch a large portion of its energy sources from carbon-intensive to renewable ones.

Novelis has targets to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% by 2026, and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner. With this project, the company is investing $2.4 million in decarbonizing its production in Pieve, further supporting the development of low-carbon, sustainable aluminium solutions for the European market.

“The construction of this solar park marks an important milestone in our own sustainability journey while enabling us to contribute to Italy’s and Europe’s decarbonization and energy independence goals."

Emilio Braghi, Executive Vice President, Novelis Inc., and President, Novelis Europe.

“I am very proud that our team is part of a company that is leading the way in decarbonizing the aluminium industry while adding value to surrounding communities."

Laura Basile, Plant Manager, Novelis Pieve and Novelis Bresso

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Strategic collaboration to provide advanced aluminium solutions to the Aerospace industry

Novelis is investing approximately $90 million to double the recycling capacity for used beverage cans (UBCs) at its Latchford plant in the UK. This expansion will increase the facility’s recycling capacity for UBC by 85 kilotonnes per year, a growth of over 100%.

Novelis is proud to be part of the European Aluminium Packaging Group’s efforts, along with three other European can sheet manufacturers, to work on developing a new market standard with the ultimate goal of having an aluminum beverage can made from up to 100% recycled content.