TL;DR:
- In a move to meet carbon reduction goals, the EU started to recycle aluminium.
- Chinese buyers now snapping up aluminium scrap, smelting it an sell it back to Europe as new metal
- Novelis, the industry’s largest recycler, calls on the EU to curb exports of metal scrap to China and the US
The EU’s recycling system is being weaponised against the bloc by Chinese buyers snapping up aluminium scrap, smelting it and exporting it back to Europe as newly produced metal, according to the industry’s largest recycler.
Emilio Braghi, executive vice-president of Novelis, [said] the sector risked what he described as terminal decline unless Brussels acted on its pledge to curb the export of scrap to Asia and the US.
“We have lost primary production. Now we are at risk of losing aluminium scrap,” he said, noting that Europe would be unable to meet its own environmental goals if this was the case.
EU producers pay energy prices up to four times those of their competitors, so have shifted to remelting scrap which is more energy efficient.
The recycling drive is part of EU efforts to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, and to retain more critical materials in the bloc to avoid dependence on Chinese imports.
Unlike other parts of the world, Europe is unique in consumer behaviour and its willingness to pay more for recycled products out of a concern for the environment and climate change, Braghi said.
“We see that pull from consumers, whether they are buying a new car or they are buying an aluminium can, based on high recycled content. We don’t see that elsewhere.”
…
The report is a compendium of unsourced claims made by an executive of an US aluminium company Novelis. There is an older piece by FT with more serious sources. It has no mention of China. However, it says:
That’s all very interesting, so if the your linked article is older, does that mean Chinese companies are copying US ones on this? Or maybe it’s not as simple as that. Either way, to me it sounds like the Indian-owned US subsidiary Novelis has created facilities in Europe and did not account for aluminum scrap getting bought up by other companies.
Trump administration imposed tariffs on EU steel in March 2025. Did China also impose tariffs on EU steel in the meantime? Or, why should chinese companies copy the american companies?
I don’t know how old your linked article is, as it’s behind a paywall, but according to different sources aluminum US tariffs on aluminum were already implemented or increased in June 2018.
The EU Packaging Waste Regulation laws which demand higher recycling rates were enacted in 2025. So considering the 2018s tariffs, US companies had reasons to import aluminum scrap for 7 more years. The increases in available scrap and on tariffs in 2025 surely strengthened this though.
Trump introduced 25% tarif in March 2025 which was doubled to 50% in June 2025. Another source
That doesn’t negate the fact that he already introduced tariffs on aluminum in 2018.