Nonferrous metals representative body European Metals has appointed Inge Hofkens president of the group. She currently works as COO for multi-metal recycling at German copper recycler Aurubis.
She succeeds group president Evangelos Mytilineos, who served a four-year term at European Metals and continues to work as executive chairperson of Greece-based bauxite, alumina, and primary aluminium producer Metlen.
“Over the past four years it has been my great privilege and honour to lead the European non-ferrous metals industry in its work to improve the policy situation for our sector. We have seen great strides taken at the EU level with the delivery of the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Steel and Metals Action Plan, the Clean Industrial Deal and more recently the Industrial Accelerator Act, however, there is still a lot of work to do on energy costs, on the Emissions Trading System, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and importantly on circularity in the metals sector,” Mytilineos comments.
He emphasises the record volumes of aluminium and copper scrap leaking from the EU to global competitors is a particular concern that needs addressing. As such, it is an important moent for Hofkens to lead European Metals into the next phase of its growth.
In turn, Hofkens says there are crucial policies incoming for the nonferrous metal sector in Europe, not least the Circular Economy Act, which must deliver on multiple opportunities for metal recycling, processing and refining in Europe in answer to the strongly growing metal demand and desired raw material resilience.
“This is a huge potential source for critical raw materials that today are left untapped. As demand for critical raw materials grows and Europe’s need for resilience becomes more urgent, unless we strengthen Europe’s processing and smelting capacities, critical raw materials will continue to flow to competing economies, where the economic value, strategic resilience and industrial competitiveness they generate will increasingly accrue elsewhere,” she states.
European Metals aims to help address the loss of scrap copper and other strategic metals from the EU.
Hofkens vows to make sure that the European metals industry has the best possible policy framework to thrive in the region.
European Metals is a nonferrous metals industry association representing the entire value chain of all nonferrous metals in Europe. It is also the main representative body for Critical and Strategic Raw Materials.
