Spreewerk Lübben GmbH, a company with a long industrial tradition based in Lübben (Spreewald), Germany, has announced that it will cease operations at the beginning of 2024. This decision was announced by Harald Robl, CEO of General Atomics Europe, during a staff meeting on January 4, 2024.
Although important milestones, such as the development plan and waste approval in accordance with §16 BImSchG (Federal Immission Control Act) were achieved for the Spreewerk Lübben GmbH site, the operational activities had to be discontinued at the beginning of 2024 due to a lack of capacity utilization.
The company is taking this step due to the tense and rapidly changing market situation in the field of lithium-ion battery recycling as well as a number of limiting conditions and increasingly rising costs and bureaucratic obstacles.
Despite intensive efforts over the last few months, it has not been possible to create cost-covering and sufficiently long-term contracts or cooperation structures. Until the very end, the management of the Spreewerk Lübben GmbH, with the support of the management of General Atomics Europe, had tried to create the necessary framework conditions to be able to continue operations in Lübben in the rapidly changing recycling market and had negotiated with potential customers and partners - unfortunately without the desired success.
Consequently, the Group's management decided to cease operations in Lübben at the beginning of 2024.
Harald Robl stated that the decision was difficult and presented many challenges. He expressed gratitude for the hard work and commitment of the employees and promised to support them during the transition phase.
All existing orders were completed by the end of 2023.
Spreewerk is an industrial site located in the northern part of Lübben (Spreewald). During the German Democratic Republic era, the company produced ammunition and later focused on recycling and utilizing ammunition.
Recently, Spreewerk has expanded its operations to include the recycling of lithium-ion batteries, leveraging its extensive experience in handling hazardous materials.
