Century Aluminum optimistic about capacity reopening with new power agreement

In an investor presentation on Wednesday, Century Aluminum’s president and CEO Michael Bless said that his firm plans reopening the 100 thousand tpy of idled aluminium smelting capacity in the United States soon. He however added that the reopening depends on the availability of cheaper power for the Mt. Holly smelter.  This was in response to investor’s questions regarding the future of the idled potline at Mt. Holly and Hawesville plant.

Regarding Mt. Holly, Bless said a restart would happen “as soon as we can get the last 25% of that power from the market.”

However, he added that even if a new agreement is reached, smelting new aluminium at the plant will still take “several months.”

The Mt. Holly facility has been running only one potline for last two years despite having a nameplate capacity of 225 thousand metric tons per year due to high power price by Santee Cooper. The 2015 agreement with Santee Cooper allows Century to buy three-quarters of its power in the open market, with a commitment to buy the remainder from Santee Cooper.

Century blames low aluminium prices for running only two of its five potlines at Hawesville. The company is optimistic about its restart as that facility “makes money” due to improved aluminium market performance and also due to its access to open market electricity.

Bless hopes the idled potlines to be back to operations “if we had some confidence that the current price environment, at the very least, was going to persist.”

Bless appreciated Trump administration’s movement on the issue of China’s overcapacity and dumping in the U.S.

They’re working actively on it,” although it is difficult to predict “in what form it comes and when it comes,” he concluded.