TRIMET Aluminium SE said on 1 October 2026 that it has officially opened a plant in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, to process and sort aluminium scrap. RecyclingInside carried the company release on 5 October and Circular Economy News on 6 October. The State of North Rhine-Westphalia commissioned the sorting line. TRIMET said the site will take over processing steps that external partners had mainly handled, and that it is designed for up to 40,000 metric tonnes of aluminium scrap a year.

The company is a family-owned aluminium producer with eight locations and more than 2,500 employees. It will feed the sorted fractions into the production plan of its own smelters, casthouses and recycling plants. The stated aim is to allocate recycled metal to specific alloys, cut the use of primary metal, and raise recycled content in the products it sells.

What the Hamm line does

At the centre of the plant is a laser-based LIBS sorter. TRIMET said the system can spectroscopically analyse up to 150 pieces a second and detect low concentrations of silicon, copper, iron and magnesium. Air jets then split the stream into material fractions. A baler packs the sorted scrap for transport and melting.

LIBS reads the alloy fingerprint of a piece. A yard that already separates new extrusions from mixed castings and fragmentiser aluminium is still doing useful work: the mill line still has to be fed a clean, dry, unattached stream. Paint, steel fittings, copper tubes and other metals remain a problem for any optical or laser sort. The new capacity still needs that preparation before mixed household scrap can meet a casthouse specification.

TRIMET said the plant was completed in just over a year after cooperation with the City of Hamm and the state authorities. That is a commissioning note, not a booking for this month. The 40,000-tonne figure is nameplate throughput, not a purchase programme published to the trade.

Who it affects among yards, traders, mills and processors

German and Benelux yards that sold pre-sorted aluminium into TRIMET or into the contractors who used to sort for it should ask which ticket the Hamm line now wants. If the remelter is taking mixed old scrap and sorting it itself, a processor that lived on that sort fee needs another outlet. If the remelter still wants new aluminium extrusions, mixed castings or fragmentiser aluminium already split, the yard should keep those piles separate and say so on the ticket.

The plant sits inland in North Rhine-Westphalia. This is a truck or rail delivery, not a deep-sea stem. A trader who has been booking European aluminium against the duty-paid premium or watching EGA’s comment on German remelt should treat Hamm as extra domestic sort capacity at one consumer, not as a new export grade. CBAM still prices imported aluminium products, not scrap under the usual waste codes.

Processors that already run alloy sort for other German remelters are not displaced by one 40,000-tonne line. They should expect buyers to ask for tighter residual and alloy notes now that a mill has shown it can read silicon, copper, iron and magnesium on the piece. Do not invent an ISRI name for a LIBS fraction. Use the grades already traded on this site: new extrusions (TATA), mixed aluminium castings (TENSE), baled UBC (TALDON), aluminium-copper radiators (TALK) and fragmentiser aluminium (TWITCH). See ISRI scrap codes if you need the labels.

How to name the lot

Name the material the mill already buys: new extrusions, mixed castings, baled UBC, aluminium-copper radiators or fragmentiser aluminium. State tonnes, whether it is loose or baled, the city or works, and whether the sale is ex-works or delivered. If the lot is mixed old scrap offered for a LIBS line, say that it is mixed, name the main alloy family if you know it, and list attachments or other metals. Do not write a recycled-content claim or a 40,000-tonne capacity figure on the parcel.

Verified companies can list on live lots or post a wanted enquiry. Request access if you have aluminium scrap or a remelt programme to cover.