China Hongqiao Group, in a joint project with Germany's Scholz Recycling, will put a recycled aluminum production line into operation in its home province of Shandong at the end of this year.

As a major move by Hongqiao towards sustainable development, the project is also set to start processing mixed scrap metal and end-of-life vehicles starting from June next year.

With an investment of 1.5 billion yuan, the joint project in Zouping Economic and Technological Development Zone in Binzhou City, Shandong Province covers an area of 523.9 square meters, built around the "3+N mode: recycling of scrapped vehicles, aluminum regeneration, power battery regeneration and supporting industries chain.

It will be able to process 500,000 tons per year of aluminum scrap and reduce average annual carbon emissions by 1.9 million tons when fully operational.

Through this partnership, Hongqiao is seeking to use more scrap and tap cleaner power sources for the energy-intensive smelting process to cut its environmental footprint and lower emissions.

The project, which will be put into operation in June 2022, will be able to process 100,000 vehicles per year, said the statement issued after a groundbreaking ceremony.