Alcoa energizes 20 pots to begin Brazil aluminum plant restart

Alcoa has energized the first 20 smelting pots at its Alumar aluminum smelter in Sao Luis, Brazil, to begin the plant's operational restart, the company said April 13.

"The restart of Alumar will build on our competitive strengths in the global and local marketplace and expand our ability to supply growing demand for sustainably-sourced aluminum," Chief Operating Officer John Slaven said in a statement.

Production at Alumar is expected to reach its full capacity of 447,000 mt/year by the end of the year. The smelter was fully curtailed in 2015.

The Pittsburgh-based integrated aluminum producer announced in September 2021 that it would restore operations at Alumar amid strong conditions in the aluminum market. By 2024, the plant will be fully powered with renewable energy, Alcoa said at the time.

The Platts spot 99.7% P1020 US Aluminum Transaction Premium was assessed at 40 cents/lb plus LME cash, delivered Midwest, net 30-day payment terms, April 12, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. The premium averaged 26.38 cents/lb in 2021, more than double the average of 12.67 cents/lb in 2015, according to S&P Global data.

Alumar has a total of three smelting lines with 710 pots. It is jointly owned by Alcoa and Australia-based metals and mining company South32.

With the full restart at Alumar, Alcoa will have about 80% of its 2.99 million mt/year of global aluminum smelting capacity operating.

Hydro restarts Brazil smelter line

Norsk Hydro also said April 8 it had restarted pots at the second production line of its Albras smelter in Brazil.

Production at the potline has been down since February due to a power disruption failure. Since then, Albras has only been operating at 75% of its 460,000 mt/year aluminum production capacity.

Hydro said the production line is expected to be operating at normal capacity by the end of the fourth quarter.

Albras is jointly owned by Hydro and Nippon Amazon Aluminium.