Alcoa begins to restart Alumar aluminum smelter in Brazil

On April 14, Alcoa said on Wednesday that it had electrified the first 20 electrolytic cells of its Alumar aluminum smelter in St. Louis, Brazil, to restart operations at the smelter.

John Slaven, Alcoa's chief operating officer, said in a statement: "the reopening of the Alumar smelter will not only consolidate Alcoa's competitive edge in the global and domestic markets, but also help enhance the company's ability to meet the growing demand for aluminum."

The Alumar aluminum smelter is expected to operate at full capacity by the end of the year, that is, 447000 tons per year. The smelter had previously completely shut down production in 2015.

Given the strong performance of the aluminium market, Alcoa announced last September that it would resume operations at the Alumar smelter. Alcoa also said that by 2024, the smelter would be powered entirely by renewable energy.

Alumar aluminum smelter has 3 electrolytic lines and 710 electrolytic cells. The smelter is jointly owned by Alcoa and Australia's South32.

Alcoa has a total aluminum smelting capacity of 2.99 million tons per year worldwide. With the full restart of the Alumar smelter, Alcoa's capacity utilization will reach about 80 per cent.

Norsk Hydro of Norway had previously said on April 8 that it had restarted the electrolytic cell on its second production line at the Albras smelter in Brazil.

Production of the line has been declining since February due to power outages. Since then, the Albras smelter has produced only 75 per cent of its annual capacity of 460000 tonnes.

Norway's Hydro said the production line is expected to return to normal capacity by the end of the fourth quarter.

The Albras smelter is jointly owned by Norway's Hydro and Nippon Amazon Aluminium.