Factbox: Aluminum smelter cutbacks and closures
28/03/2014 13:52
March 28 (Reuters) - Many aluminum producers have cut loss-making capacity or shut down completely as they struggle with low London Metal Exchange prices, high energy costs and a flood of new Chinese capacity. On Friday, Alcoa Inc AA.N said it will shutter another 147,000 tonnes of capacity at two smelters in Brazil. ID:nL4N0MP3FG Prices are trading at their lowest levels in four years amid a global oversupply that has pushed stocks in London Metal Exchange warehouses to record levels. Since the start of November, LME cash prices CMAL0 have been below $1,800 per tonne, a level considered close to or below the cost of production for a large portion of global capacity. Below are details of many producers' efforts to cut loss-making capacity and divest assets. In some cases, several plants have been saved from the brink of closure. ALCOA: Alcoa has announced closures or curtailments representing about 800,000 tonnes, or 21 percent of total capacity, exceeding the 460,000 tonnes placed under review since May 2013. That includes closures announced since the start of the year, such as the 147,000 tonnes in Brazil announced on Friday, the shutdown of Point Henry in Australia and its Massena East smelter in New York with combined capacity of 315,000 tonnes. Alcoa said on Friday it expected the capacity cuts at Sao Luis and Pocos de Caldas smelters in Brazil to be complete by the end of May. Massena East was due to close sometime in the first quarter. RUSAL: The world's biggest aluminum producer cut production by 8 percent to 3.9 million tonnes in 2013 after closing three smelters and plans to remove a further 325,000 tonnes in 2014. ALRO: Romania's Alro SA ROALR.BX , controlled by Vimetco NV VICOq.L said earlier in March it planned to suspend some operations due to a surge in energy costs. ID:nL6N0M24T6 It is one of Europe's biggest primary aluminum smelters. TALCO: Tajikistan Aluminium Company, Central Asia's largest aluminum smelter, cut output by 20.6 percent to 216,369 tonnes in 2013 and may see a sharper fall this year due to low market prices, it said in February. ID:nL5N0LH1GU RIO TINTO: Rio Tinto RIO.L shut a 100,000-tonnes-per-year smelter in Shawinigan, Quebec last year and has sold several smelters in the United States and France. But the company was forced last August to abandon a plan to spin off its Pacific Aluminium business housing 13 underperforming smelting and alumina businesses after failing to find a buyer. ID:nL4N0G94RD The company continues to carry the burden of its $38 billion takeover of Canada's Alcan, a 2007 deal which has racked up $30 billion in writedowns. NORSK HYDRO: Norwegian producer has mothballed its 180,000-tonne Kurri Kurri smelter in Australia in 2012, but has focused on cutting costs and modernizing plants to offset low aluminum prices. The company had slashed costs by $300 a tonne at the aluminum smelters it fully owns by the end of 2013 and has said it will target savings of $180 a tonne for its joint-venture smelters by the end of 2016. ID:nL5N0JK1I7 BHP BILLITON: The global mining group BHP.AX said in January it had started talks with employees at its Bayside aluminum smelter in South Africa about possibly closing the plant. ID:nL5N0KT0U8 The move comes as it focuses on core assets such as iron ore and looks at divesting some non-core assets such as aluminum, nickel and manganese. ID:nL6N0LN30G ORMET: The mid-sized U.S. producer ORMTQ.PK became the latest casualty of low aluminum prices and high power costs in October, closing its 270,000-tonne-per-year smelter in Hannibal, Ohio. ID:nL1N0HU1UI The company had filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2013. ALUMINIUM DELFZIJL Dutch smelter Aluminium Delfzijl (Aldel) filed for bankruptcy at the end of December 2013 after failing to negotiate an energy deal in a years-long battle to stay afloat. ID:nL6N0KH17B The company, the last remaining smelter in the Netherlands and bought by global industrial commodities company Klesch Group in 2009, produced more than 110,000 tonnes of new aluminum and recycled a further 50,000 tonnes of metal a year. TRIMET: Germany's largest aluminum producer has said it will add capacity and jobs this year at the two French plants it bought from miner Rio Tinto in December. ID:nL5N0L32CP The company took control of the plants last month in a deal backed by the French state and utility EDF, saving them from closure and preventing the loss of about 500 jobs. Annual production from the two sites in 2014 will rise to 140,000-150,000 tonnes from around 100,000 tonnes, bringing them back to full capacity. ALUMINIJ MOSTAR Bosnia's sole aluminum smelter ALUM.SJ staved off closure in October last year after clinching a deal to settle its debt to the state-run power company. ID:nL5N0IC2CI It produces around 160,000 tonnes of aluminum a year and employs 900 people directly in the Mostar area. CENTURY ALUMINUM The U.S. producer CENX.O , which is controlled by Glencore Xstrata PLC GLEN.L , has agreed deals with the Kentucky power regulator to allow it to buy power on the grid to feed its two smelters, Sebree and Hawesville, which operate in the state. Those plants were threatened with closure without the new energy deals. Century bought Sebree, which has capacity of 205,000 tonnes per year, from Alcan last April. ID:nL2N0DG1X0 (Compiled by Josephine Mason; Editing by Stephen Powell) ((Josephine.Mason@thomsonreuters.com)(+1 646 223 8925)(Reuters Messaging: josephine.mason.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: ALUMINIUM CUTBACKS/