Century reaches new market-based power agreement for Mt. Holly Smelter

Century Aluminum Company announced today that it has renegotiated a market-based agreement with a third-party supplier to provide approximately 75 per cent of the power requirements for the Mt. Holly, South Carolina smelter. The remaining 25 per cent of Mt. Holly's power requirement will continue to be supplied by Santee Cooper. The new market-based power agreement will allow Mt. Holly to continue to operate at half capacity while it seeks a competitive long-term arrangement.

"We are proud of the team at Mt. Holly, who have operated the plant safely and efficiently during these highly uncertain times," commented Michael Bless, Century's President and CEO. "We have regrettably not been able to achieve an agreement for full market power access; such a structure is required for Mt. Holly's long-term competitiveness. We have achieved this current milestone due to the highly competitive nature of the wholesale power markets at the present time and additional cost reduction measures.

"We are hopeful that additional consideration of this complex matter in South Carolina will enable Mt. Holly to purchase its full power requirement from the competitive market," added Bless. "The facts support the conclusion that such an outcome would be beneficial to each and every constituency, including Santee Cooper and its entire customer base. In addition, full access to market power will enable us to run Mt. Holly at its maximum capacity, rehire 300 employees and restore the $500 million in economic impact that has been unnecessarily lost."