Aurubis, the Hamburg-based international metal processing company, will increase its copper strip production in Stolberg in Rhineland, close to Aachen. The €16 million ($17 million) investment includes a bell annealing furnace and an additional stretch bend leveller.
It supplies the battery industry with bare and tin-coated strips, as well as refined lead bars.
“In alignment with our ‘Tomorrow Metals’ sustainability pledge, we’re not just increasing our production capacity, but also significantly improving our energy balance at the site. Because we’re reducing direct emissions — with continued high quality and delivery reliability,” said Tim Kurth, chief operations officer for custom smelting and products, and new member of the Aurubis executive board.
Dr. Benjamin Cappi, managing director of Aurubis Stolberg, said: “The ramp-up of these important core units of our strip production is another milestone for our site three years after the severe flooding in the region.” In July 2021 floods had stopped production at the Stolberg copper products plant and the clean-up operations took about five months. The final production line restarted in June 2022, almost one year after the disaster.
The new stretch bend leveller amounting to about €7 million ($7.6million) provides growth options in the fabrication line for 600mm wide strip. Stretch bend levelling is a process step in strip production that improves the flatness of the strip after rolling and reduces internal stresses in the material before it is slit to the desired widths.
The new furnace is valued at around €9 million ($9.8 million). It is now operated with electricity instead of natural gas. The higher efficiency of this furnace saves approximately 20% of the energy used and lowers carbon dioxide emissions directly caused by the site by about 25%.
The 99.99 % pure copper products delivered from the 400-employee site in Stolberg include bare and tin-coated strips and bars for the automotive and battery industry.