Portuguese extrusion business of Norwegian aluminium group Norsk Hydro. Hydro Aluminium Extrusion Portugal (HAEP), S.A. — formerly Sapa Profiles Avintes — runs an extrusion plant, die shop and recycling casthouse in Avintes, Vila Nova de Gaia, founded in 1982 and employing around 130 people.
Hydro’s site in Avintes, on the south bank of the Douro opposite Porto, is one of the most complete Nordic industrial operations in Portugal: an aluminium extrusion plant founded in 1982, complemented by its own die shop and a recycling casthouse that produces thousands of tonnes of recycled aluminium a year. The roughly 130-person operation — which entered the Norwegian group’s portfolio through the 2017 Sapa acquisition — supplies extruded profiles, raw or finished, for automotive, transport, renewable-energy and general industrial applications in the Portuguese market.
The plant is also a sustainability showcase inside Hydro’s European network. It holds Aluminium Stewardship Initiative certification (achieved for Iberia in 2021), and in April 2024 produced its first batch of Hydro Recycled low-carbon aluminium made from 100% post-consumer scrap, with a carbon footprint below 0.5 kg CO2e per kilo of aluminium — close to zero by industry standards.
Avintes shows what durable Nordic industrial presence in Portugal looks like: not a sales office but a full value chain — melting, casting, extruding and finishing — anchored in the Porto industrial belt for four decades. As European manufacturers hunt for low-carbon aluminium, a Norwegian-owned recycling casthouse in Gaia becomes a strategic asset for both ends of the corridor.
In April 2024 the Avintes casthouse produced its first batch of Hydro Recycled low-carbon aluminium from 100% post-consumer scrap (under 0.5 kg CO2e/kg Al), positioning the Portuguese site inside Hydro’s push to commercialise near-zero-carbon aluminium in Iberia.
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