Liberty House Chairman considers buying Alcoa’s Portland aluminium smelter in Victoria

Liberty House Chairman Sanjeev Gupta is reportedly considering buying the Portland aluminium smelter in Victoria, in an attempt to save the Australian facility from likely closure.

The fate of one of Alcoa’s worst-performing smelters has been under a cloud for months, as the high cost of electricity threatened its future viability. In October, the company had announced its plans to sell up to $1 billion assets as well as closures of facilities around the world, in a bid to boost its bottom line and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Gupta’s Liberty House Group has been in preliminary discussions with Alcoa and other stakeholders, including the Victorian government, over the last few weeks about the purchase of the plant, as part of a global expansion in the aluminium sector.

The Liberty House Group currently owns two smelters – one in Fort William, Scotland and the other in Dunkrik, France, which was purchased from Rio Tinto for US$500 million in 2018.

Union officials representing Alcoa staff in October had assured that workers would do all they could to save the plant from closure, including the possibility of accepting wage freezes.  

"Alcoa closing in Portland would be devastating to the south-western Victorian economy," Ben Davis, the state secretary of the Australian Workers Union, said.

He also said, "The AWU is always committed to doing anything it can to keep Alcoa operating in Portland."

The negotiations between Liberty House Group and Alcoa are continuing and the deal is not yet guaranteed.