Wieland purchases Aurubis flat-rolled products site in Buffalo, New York

Aurubis AG has sold its Buffalo, New York, flat-rolled products production site to the Wieland Group, headquartered in Ulm, Germany. The sale closed Aug. 30, with both parties agreeing to keep the sale price of the transaction confidential.

The sale enables fellow German company Aurubis to further its concentration on primary copper production, recycling and the multimetal portfolio of its smelter network, the company says, and is the most recent in a number of transactions to reduce the scope and complexity of its flat-rolled product area.

In mid-2022, Aurubis sold production sites in Zutphen, Netherlands, as well as slitting centers in Birmingham, U.K.; Dolný Kubín, Slovakia; and Mortara, Italy, which had a total of about 360 employees, to KME SE based in Osnabrück, Germany.

Since June 2022, Aurubis has been building a new production site in Augusta, Georgia, that is focused on processing complex recyclables as part of its growth strategy. In 2019, the company also bought the former Metallo Group, a recycling specialist, integrating that company’s operations into the group.

The former Aurubis Buffalo Inc., with about 500 employees, produces copper and copper alloy strip and sheets that are used to manufacture a wide range of product lines, including electrical products, electronic connectors, heat exchangers and architectural products. The site supplies a number of customers, primarily in the U.S. Aurubis Buffalo’s production and business activities largely were independent of the Aurubis Group, according to the company, in relation to the growing recycling business at the Georgia site and the Aurubis sites in Europe.

Wieland says the purchase is consistent with its strategy to strengthen its North American footprint and expand capabilities and capacities for semifinished products. In combination with the modernization underway at Wieland’s rolled products facility in East Alton, Illinois, and the commissioning of Wieland's recycling center in Shelbyville, Kentucky, Wieland serves its U.S. customer base and enables closed-loop supply chain opportunities and the highest recycled-content products.

Wieland has a global network of more than 80 production sites and service and trading companies. Wieland develops solutions for automotive, aerospace, electronics, refrigeration, air conditioning and many other industries and uses high-performance copper materials to drive the success of its B2B customers in future-oriented fields such as electromobility, connectivity and urbanization.