Circular economy in perfection

Two major industrial companies from the Osnabrück region are joining forces to significantly advance climate protection. Leftover metal produced at Volkswagen Osnabrück is recycled into new high-tech steel at the steel mill of Georgsmarienhütte GmbH before flowing back into the value chain at Volkswagen. In this way, both companies are making a decisive contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions (decarbonization).

Volkswagen has its pressing plant at the Osnabrück site. Here, strip steel is processed into body components for on-site production and other Group locations. For some years, the unused metal from the manufacturing process have been delivered to the electric steel mill in Georgsmarienhütte, around ten kilometers away. It is then melted in an electric arc furnace and recycled into a new high-quality starting material for Volkswagen AG's transmission production in Baunatal, Hessen. Compared with the same tonnage of steel produced in a conventional blast furnace, the recycling of this type of metal already saves 8,000 tons of CO₂ annually.

The Managing Director of Technology of Volkswagen Osnabrück GmbH, Jörn Hasenfuß, and Dr. Alexander Becker, GMH Group's CEO, confirm the further strengthening of this long-standing partnership. The delivery volumes of recyclable metal will remain at a high level in the future, significantly reducing the CO₂ footprint of both companies in the process.

"In the course of the decarbonization of the steel industry, recyclable metal is becoming increasingly important as a valuable resource," explains Becker. "As Germany's already most climate-friendly steel company, this agreement brings us an important step closer to climate neutrality in 2039," says the GMH Group CEO.

"Volkswagen benefits in many ways from its cooperation with the GMH Group: on the one hand, we ensure that the unused metal we produce in the stamping plant is returned to the production cycle. On the other hand, we reduce the CO₂ emissions generated during transport to a minimum thanks to the close proximity to the steel mill," says Volkswagen Osnabrück Managing Director Hasenfuß.

For the GMH Group, the intensification of the partnership also makes a decisive contribution to its claim to be a full-range supplier of recycled input material through ready-to-install components. This process demonstrates the company’s circular economy in action.