Hydro is a large remelter and recycler of aluminium, with nearly 30 facilities worldwide. We remelt process scrap from our own production and from other companies. Our expertise in remelting is a good basis for further expansion.
Our ambition is to grow faster than the market in recycling and to take a strong position in this part of the value chain. By 2020, we aim to recover 1 million metric tons (mt) of contaminated and post-consumer scrap annually. We have improved utilization of our existing capacity to almost 100 percent during the last two years, and are now recycling more than 270,000 mt annually. Due to curtailments in remelting and recycling capacity, growth was only about 3 percent compared to 2010. In total, Hydro is remelting and recycling above 2 million mt of aluminium. Our goal for 2012 is to stabilize at above 90 percent capacity utilization and to develop specific post-consumed scrap projects for investment in additional capacity. This will also improve the carbon footprint of Hydro.
In the next phase, we intend to invest in additional recycling assets to capture scrap volumes generated in our plants and from plants operated by our partners. One of our goals is to develop recycling plants that serve internal and external customers with metal products produced from contaminated industrial and end-of-life scrap. The previously announced investment in a recycling plant at Karmøy, Norway was postponed in 2011 due to the market situation, see also page xx. The development of a recycling center in Neuss, Germany is continuing as planned.
In Europe, approximately 95 percent of the aluminium in automotive applications and 96 percent of the aluminium in commercial buildings is recycled at end-of-life. The recycling rate for used aluminium cans has continued to grow and is now above 64 percent for the whole of Europe. The recycling of other aluminium packaging has increased as well. It is estimated that at least 55 percent of all used aluminium packaging in Europe is being recycled today, and further growth, due to additional collection activities is expected. Hydro and our partners in the market are supporting aluminium packaging promotions and recycling initiatives throughout Europe. We team up with producers of beverage cans, drinks and food, and other interest groups and industries, to develop specific activities aimed at raising public awareness about the importance of recycling.
