Noranda idles 2 potlines at New Madrid smelter after circuit failure (updated)

Noranda Aluminum Holding

08/01/2016 22:09

(Adds background on aluminum market, Noranda) 
    NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp 
 NORN.PK  has idled two of three potlines at its New Madrid, 
Missouri smelter after an electrical supply circuit failure, the 
company said in a statement on Friday.  
    The failure occurred on Thursday afternoon and no serious 
injuries were reported, the company said. The facility has a 
capacity to produce 253,000 tonnes of aluminum each year, but 
has been operating at around 85 percent of capacity for the past 
several months with no plans to ramp up to full capacity. 
   The outage is the second accident to disrupt production at 
the facility in five months, and will further reduce U.S. 
primary aluminum production. Planned cutbacks due to tumbling 
prices were already set to reduce the country's 2016 output to 
the lowest level since 1950.  
    In August, Noranda was forced to suspend production of 
extrusion billet due to an explosion at the cast house, and has 
not yet resumed output.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N10F2G5 
    Noranda has not yet established a timeline for resuming 
production at the two idled potlines and is assessing the 
incident to determine its root cause.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nWNAB09M4R 
    The unexpected outage comes a day after Alcoa  AA.N  
announced plans to permanently close its 269,000 tonne-per-year 
Warrick, Indiana aluminum smelter, the largest in the United 
States. It plans to idle two Washington state plants, which will 
leave it with just one operating smelter in the country. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N14R5A  
    Century Aluminum has also reduced production at two of its 
three smelters, and is considering launching a trade case 
against China, which it accuses of subsidizing its smelters and 
blames for tumbling prices.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N13F0X4  
 
 (Reporting By Luc Cohen; Editing by Tom Brown) 
 ((luc.cohen@thomsonreuters.com; +1-646-223-8699; Reuters 
Messaging: luc.cohen.thomsonreuters@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: NORANDA ALM HLD OUTAGES/SMELTER