Century Aluminum files antitrust lawsuit against its power provider

Century Aluminum has filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court against Santee Cooper, its power provider. The company accuses the power provider of breaching state and federal antitrust laws to which Santee Cooper assures "vigorous defense."

Michael Bless, Century Aluminum Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer said that they had to proceed with the lawsuit because all other attempts including a recent final face-to-face attempt to reach resolution with Santee Cooper had failed.

“We have filed this antitrust lawsuit against Santee Cooper as a last resort to save 600 jobs and the nearly $1 billion in economic contributions to the state of South Carolina made by the Mt. Holly plant.” he said.


As said by Century Aluminum, Santee Cooper unlawfully pushed the Mt. Holly smelter to buy a quarter of its power at much higher rates than market standard and led to the layoff half of its employees in order to survive.

Santee Cooper however calls the lawsuit disappointing through a statement and blames Century for continuing to "avoid the real problem facing its Mt. Holly plant," which according to them was the drop in aluminium prices.

“…unlike other utilities in South Carolina and elsewhere, Santee has wilfully violated the laws governing monopolies. That includes acting as an unregulated, unaccountable monopoly without meaningful oversight by the state,” Bless said.

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The lawsuit challenges Santee Cooper’s claim that it doesn’t have capacity to transfer third-party electricity through its facilities and that could lead the company to forfeit future market purchases. Century's complaint says that cheaper power was available from third-party providers.

In response to the complaint, Santee Cooper states that Century signed a three-year power agreement with Santee Cooper in December 2015 and the company was given the best rate available. Santee Cooper argues that its industrial power cost is about 30% lower than the national average and it saved the smelter more than $120 million prior to the 2015 contract.

Century’s lawsuit seeks an order stopping Santee Cooper from continuing to exhibit "anticompetitive actions" and allow Century to purchase power on the open market. The lawsuit also seeks monetary compensation from Santee Cooper.

Santee Cooper states that they will review Century’s litigation and put up a vigorous defence. The power provider has refused to agree to any terms with Century that require subsidy from other customers. They claim the litigation is simply Century’s attempt to obtain unfair financial concessions via frivolous lawsuit.