German scrap metal recycling firm Scholz AG has signed an agreement to sell its aluminum smelter in Tatabanya, Hungary, to Sceptre Inc. of the United States. The smelter, a part of Scholz’s aluminum group, was deemed a noncore unit of the Scholz Group.

Scholz also has announced the sale of a recycling facility in Velbert, Germany, to Wilhelm Raven Euro-Metall GmbH, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based company Metallum Holding AG. The scrap recycling facility has a total of 34 employees. Metallum says with the acquisition it will strengthen its metal recycling and trading business in western Germany.

The sale of the assets follows the company restructuring its operations to reduce its debt from around 1 billion euros to 700 million euros. The sale of the two assets will be used to help further reduce the debt.
Along with the sale of the assets, Scholz also recently obtained a new credit facility of around €40 million, which the company says will allow it to continue to fund its current business as it looks to further reduce its debt through the sale of assets.

Other assets that the company is considering selling include the business units of its stainless steel trading business and its aluminum division.

Metallum Holding, a holding group founded in 2007, holds stakes in a number of companies that recycle and process nonferrous metals. The company says it recycles, processes and sells around 1 million metric tons of metal per year, with 60 percent being copper, 20 percent in the aluminum sector and 20 percent either iron-based or other metals.