Alumina Ltd., GFG Alliance expected to follow Green Aluminium path at San Ciprián

The workers of  San Ciprián  Aluminium smelter has unlocked the door followed by the meeting with Alcoa authorities in a possibility that the negotiations between the American multinational and the State, through the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales ( SEPI ), reach an agreement for the sale of San Ciprián  Aluminium plant before 30^th April 2021.

The works council is clear that once SEPI has the ownership of the San Ciprián smelter, it will proceed to transfer it to the GFG Alliance conglomerate. A three-way operation in which, if no other move is made, the Pittsburgh giant will retain ownership of the alumina factory, whose shareholding shares with Australia's Alumina Limited, and the British group will end up acquiring the primary aluminium plant.

However, with the on-going negotiations, one thing is clear, that all the parties involved in the future of San Ciprián seem to have their future bet on low carbon.

The GFG Alliance group forecasts that its main objective is to achieve carbon neutrality in its factories by 2030. A few days ago, Sanjeev Gupta’s team announced their intention to start up a new plant in France and it will be powered by green hydrogen, to generate low carbon materials. A project, with its particularities, that bears similarities to the one that was transferred to Alcoa unions last year.

For the Alcoa Aluminio - San Ciprián, GFG Alliance has a green plan for medium term. Among the possibilities considered which were communicated is the construction of a green hydrogen plant (that is, created from renewable sources) that would supply the aluminium plant. The creation of a cogeneration facility that would make it possible to take advantage of the factory's residual heat to generate electricity was also taken into count.

Alcoa has also been developing renewable aluminium projects for years through Elysis, a joint venture with Rio Tinto, the other leg of the Spanish Alumina factory, Alumina Ltd, it is also publicly and decisively committed to green aluminium.  It was made clear by its CEO, Mike Ferraro, at the investor conference held on the occasion of the group's annual results presentation, which owns 40% of the alumina refinery.

With a net profit of 146.6 million dollars in 2020, the executives of the group, one of the largest in Australia, were "satisfied" with the result, given the impact of Covid-19.

“While COVID-19 affected the alumina and metals markets during 2020, we continue to have a positive outlook for both commodities. Looking ahead to 2021, we foresee a reduction in the primary aluminium surplus in the rest of the world, driven by the growth in aluminium consumption”, indicated Ferraro, who highlighted that green aluminium is already beginning to be a more tangible option.

“On the horizon, we are also beginning to see the development of green aluminium. We are beginning to see the early stages of green premiums in Europe, although a stable premium has yet to emerge”, he said, pointing towards the rise in demand for low-carbon aluminium is driving change within the industry.