KMT has acquired NKT’s recycling business in Stenlille in Denmark and the parties have enter into an agreement on continued recycling of cables.
January 18, 2021
NKT and Kabel Metall & Trafo Gjenvinning AS (KMT) has a joint ambition to further develop the sustainable recycling of metals and plastics in discarded power cables. Therefore, KMT takes over NKT’s cable recycling business in Stenlille, Denmark.
The transaction was completed on 15 January 2021 as an asset sale by KMT’s Danish subsidiary KMT Kabel Danmark A/S (KMT Denmark) taking over all fixed assets, employees and customers at NKT’s plant in Stenlille.
NKT increases investment in circular economy
The plant in Stenlille was established in 1960 and has in recent years primarily recycled production scrap from NKT’s power cable factories in Denmark, Sweden and Germany. NKT aims to take full product responsibility and contribute to the circular economy by increasing the recycling rate from production and by driving the pathway towards zero waste, which includes increased recycling and reuse of metals and plastics, reduced waste as well as working with new circular materials.
– We recognize KMT’s world-leading expertise in power cable recycling, and we have therefore chosen KMT to take over the plant in Stenlille to ensure further development of the site and an optimized recycling rate for NKT. We now start a long-term partnership with KMT to ensure NKT’s product responsibility throughout the value chain, which is in line with our commitment to the Science Based target initiative to become a net-zero emission company, says NKT CEO Alexander Kara.
NKT and KMT enters long-term partnership to strengthen recycling of power cables
As part of the deal, the two parties have entered an exclusive long-term agreement to continue recycling of NKT’s power cables. It is the ambition that this collaboration will further accelerate and increase the recycling rate of cable scrap. The partnership will enable the circular use of materials which is fully aligned with NKT’s focus on climate and circularity in its business development. NKT will extend existing sustainability collaboration programs to include KMT to ensure continuous progress on the sustainability commitments.
Nordic growth for KMT
The acquisition of the plant in Stenlille is part of KMT’s growth strategy in the Northern European market for cable recycling. KMT has one of Northern Europe’s most modern cable recycling facilities in Linnestad, Norway, and had revenues of almost NOK 400 million in 2020. The acquisition in Denmark now lays the foundation for further growth through volumes from both NKT’s factories and other sources of discarded cables in Scandinavia and Northern Europe.
– The market for power cable recycling in Scandinavia is growing significantly, as an increasing share of volumes is recycled locally rather than exported to Asia. We have high ambitions for the plant in Stenlille, and see exciting potential in developing the business to provide improved recycling solutions and in increasing our market share within power cable recycling in Scandinavia, says Rune Stortiset, CEO of KMT.
The acquisition of the Stenlille plant takes KMT a further step towards taking the position as Northern Europe’s leading player in cable recycling, including becoming Northern Europe’s leading supplier of recycled copper, aluminium and lead granules.
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– In the near future, KMT’s footprint will be unique due to the large investments made to electrify production through electrically powered production equipment, supplemented by solar energy, short-distance recycling and the industry’s most innovative solutions for recycling plastic from power cables. For many years, metals from power cables have been recycled, but the way we solve the challenge associated with the enormous amounts of plastic from power cables makes KMT unique, says Stortiset.
Strengthened investment in plastic recycling in Stenlille
For several years, KMT, as well as NKT, has worked to develop new methods for reusing the plastic from recycled power cables. Together with KMT’s owner, Norsk Gjenvinning Group, a number of promising options for plastic recycling are now being developed and they may be relevant to deploy at Stenlille and thereby leverage on the NKT expertise.
– Stenlille will give us a solid platform to further develop our focus on plastic. KMT has signed industrially exciting agreements for reception and treatment of plastic in Stenlille, and we are working on several innovative projects with large international players for them to achieve their plastic recycling goals, says Rolf Bergerud Næslund, founder and business developer at KMT.
The way forward
Operation of the plant in Stenlille will be continued as before, with processing of production scrap from NKT’s factories. KMT will develop the organization in parallel with the upgrade of the facility and the development of the market for further growth in Stenlille.
