BASF realigns European precious metal recycling business

The chemical firm BASF, headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany, has proposed a plan to consolidate manufacturing operations at its Cinderford, Gloucestershire, U.K. precious metals recycling plant. The company says it will exit its non-strategic electronic scrap, gold and silver recycling business and dedicate its full focus on the auto catalyst recycling market. The company says the decision to close the operation is in line with BASF’s long-term growth strategy and growing demand for platinum group metals (PGMs) such as platinum, palladium and rhodium.

The company also manufactures precious metals products that are used in industrial applications, including automotive emissions control catalysts.

The company, with production sites throughout the world, has decided that over the next several months, production at its Cinderford site would be shifted from a two-plant operation to a single production site that is dedicated to automotive catalysts recycling. The electronic scrap materials plant would be closed, and operations at that portion of the site would be discontinued by the end of 2014. An on-site assay laboratory would also be closed by year end.

“The measures we are planning will make us more responsive to market and customer needs,” says David Freidinger, BASF vice president, Precious Metals Recycling & Refining. “We will continue to make significant improvements to our manufacturing infrastructure for automotive catalysts recycling in Cinderford to optimize our production efficiencies and position BASF to cost-effectively meet growing demand for our high-quality precious metals products.”