VALCO expands beyond primary aluminium with new rolling mill, a step to address Ghana’s import gap

Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO) plans to move further into Ghana’s aluminium value chain with a new continuous casting and rolling mill that will produce aluminium rods for electrical cable manufacturers.

The company has already supplied test samples to Nexans Kablemetal and Reroy Cables, with both manufacturers giving positive feedback. 

VALCO Finance Director, Sepenu Agbetsise, stated, “Hitherto, these companies would have had to import the rod and process it into the various cables that power our homes. Now, VALCO is in a position to supply those directly.”  

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The move takes VALCO beyond its traditional focus on primary aluminium. The company is also looking at overseas markets. In June 2026, about 25 metric tonnes of H11 Electrical Conductor (EC) grade aluminium rods were shipped to Europe for testing, with results expected by the end of August.

VALCO has identified construction, automotive, packaging and other manufacturing industries as areas where locally produced aluminium could replace imports.

Though Ghana has a large share of bauxite deposits (about 900-960 million tonnes), it still lacks a domestic alumina refinery. VALCO continues to import alumina for its smelting operations. Australia, Brazil and the Caribbean regions are among the exporting countries.

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This creates additional costs for the company. Alumina can take a long time to arrive after it is ordered and paid for, leaving working capital tied up while the material is in transit. VALCO also pays freight to bring alumina into the country and then incurs another freight cost when aluminium products are exported.

A domestic alumina refinery is expected to reduce some of these costs by shortening the supply chain and reducing the amount of money tied up in material during transit. It could also lower financing and freight costs. Regarding this, Agbetsise expressed, “If we have alumina just at our backyard, we don’t have to pay ahead of time.”

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The refinery is therefore an important part of Ghana’s plan to develop an integrated aluminium industry, covering bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting and value-added manufacturing. The government is currently seeking investors for the country's first alumina refinery.