Alcoa to resume operations of redundant smelting capacity at Portland Aluminium

On 08^th November 2021, Alcoa Australia stated that it would resume functionalizing 35,000 tonnes per year of long retrenched capacity at its Portland aluminium smelter in Australia that will drive operations at the facility to around 95% of capacity amid supply shortage of the metal.

Alcoa said that the procedure to resume the capacity, which was redundant since 2009, will commence forthright with metal output to begin in Q32022.

Michael Gollschewski, President of Alcoa Australia said: “Restarting the idle capacity improves the smelter's cost structure, competitiveness and longer-term sustainability.”

The prices of aluminium have skyrocketed to a 13-year high in October 2021, due to production restrictions by the world’s biggest producer, China. However, the aluminium prices remain inclined due to the robust demand for lightweight metal consumption in packaging and construction.

Alcoa’s Portland aluminium smelter, with a total capacity of 358,000 tonnes per year, earlier in 2021 secured government aid to remain functional for five more years following the globally renowned integrated aluminium group, Alcoa signified to pull down, in a drive to cut costs and reduce carbon emissions.

The Alcoa Portland aluminium smelter is the single largest consumer of power in the state of Victoria and lined up a cheap power deal with AGL Energy and Alinta Energy as part of the lifeline agreed in March.

The exclusive power supplier to the smelter said: “We agreed to supply 72 megawatts of extra power for four years, beginning in July 2022, for the capacity being brought back online.”

However, the resumption of the smelting capacity is evaluated to cost around $28 million, which will be borne by the smelter's co-owners -- Alcoa, Australia's Alumina Ltd. and arms of CITIC Resources and Japan's Marubeni Corp.