Investment in recycling and circular economy

Hanover, December 19, 2025 – EGA Leichtmetall, a European producer of high-strength recycled aluminium, today announced it is expanding its production capacity more than six-fold, with the construction of a new plant near Hanover. Investment in the project is expected to be approximately EUR 145 million.

The expansion, at a new location near Hannover, is expected to add 110 thousand tonnes per year of sorting capacity and 153 thousand tonnes of melting and casting capacity. EGA Leichtmetall’s existing location in Hanover has around 30 thousand tonnes per year melting and casting capacity.

First hot metal is expected in 2028.

In operation, the new EGA Leichtmetall plant is expected to create 200 direct jobs with further opportunity upstream and downstream in the value chain in the region.

The planned new facility is thought to be one of the first in the world to combine in a single location a state-of-the-art scrap sorting system, advanced furnace technologies, and an integrated salt recovery process.

This combination is expected to enable the facility to produce specialty aluminium products to exacting specifications with high proportions of post-consumer scrap, supporting the circular economy while generating low greenhouse gas emissions and near-zero solid waste.

“EGA Leichtmetall was founded in Hanover more than 90 years ago, and today we are significantly expanding in the region,” says Thomas Witte, CEO of EGA Leichtmetall. “European industries, such as automotive and aviation and including in Lower Saxony, are increasingly demanding high-quality aluminium made with post-consumer scrap to meet consumer expectations for product performance and sustainability. This advanced new plant, combined with our decades of EGA Leichtmetall expertise, will enable post-consumer scrap to be considered more often for the most demanding applications. In addition, with this plant, more of the aluminium products that reach the end of their lives in Lower Saxony will be recycled into new products within our region.”

Recycling aluminium requires 95 per cent less energy than making new metal, generating a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions.

EGA Leichtmetall is a market leader in high strength and larger diameter secondary aluminium billets for demanding applications. At its existing plant, the company uses proprietary inductive melting technology, liquid metal treatment and casting processes developed in Hanover over more than four decades. EGA Leichtmetall has customers across Europe, and particularly in Germany, Italy and France.

EGA Leichtmetall is owned by Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer in the world, following an acquisition in 2024.