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Global aluminium company Novelis is completing its two-year $400m expansion in South Korea, doubling the production capacity of its Yeongju and Ulsan plants to around one million metrics tons of aluminium sheets per year.
An employee stands before an aluminum ingot at Novelis’ plant in Yeongju, South Korea
The company began the expansion of its aluminium rolling and recycling facilities in 2011 to meet demand for flat rolled aluminium in value-added products in the Asian market – adding a hot rolling finishing mill, cold rolling mill, pusher furnace, high-speed slitter and annealing furnaces.
Phil Martens, president and CEO of Novelis, says, “Investing further in Korea has been a key element in the company’s global strategy. Asia is the largest and fastest-growing region in the world for aluminium, and this expansion allows us to maintain our leadership in this dynamic region across key markets such as beverage cans, consumer electronics and automobiles.”
Novelis opened an aluminium recycling and casting centre at its Yeongju facility in October last year, which it claims is the largest beverage can recycling centre in Asia, with a capacity to produce 265,000 tons of sheet ingot. The company aims to increase its recycling and casting capacity to 2.1 million tons globally by 2015 through further expansion projects.
Novelis has a regional headquarters office in Seoul and four plants in South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, and will commission a Chinese facility in 2014. The company currently employs around 1,800 people in the region including 200 new staff added as part of the recent South Korean expansion.
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