Brazilian aluminium smelter struggles to produce at its capacity

The Alumar smelter in Sao Luis, Brazil is still not at full capacity despite commencing restart efforts in September 2021. The smelter is currently operating at 92% capacity, despite restart efforts beginning in 2021

The smelter, owned by Alcoa and South32, has 710 pots and a full capacity of 447kt. William Oplinger, president and chief executive officer at Alcoa Corporation said: “We continue to struggle with the Alumar restart and we’re sitting at about 92% capacity today. So, net-net, we moved a little bit forward over the last quarter.”

In January 2022, South32, outlined the March 2023 quarter as the target for full capacity operations.

Oplinger added: “The issue there is some of the patch pots that we had not anticipated having to reline, are failing faster than what we had anticipated. So, it’s a battle. We take a step and half forward and a step backward just about every day in Alumar and we’re anticipating that we’ll have that restarted completely this year.”