Century Aluminum Company started construction of a new low-carbon billet casthouse at its Norðurál Grundartangi smelter in Iceland. The new $120 million value-added casthouse will be able to produce low-carbon Natur-Al™ billet, as well as increase production of primary foundry alloys. “We are very excited to bring billet production to Grundartangi and, beginning in 2024, […]
By Alton Tabereaux, Contributing Editor. Spent potlining (SPL) disposal is one of the largest environmental waste management challenges confronting worldwide primary aluminum smelters due to its toxicity. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) asserts that 1.6 million tons of SPL were generated from primary aluminum production in 2019,1 making it the second largest waste volume produced […]
Century Aluminum Sebree LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Century Aluminum Company, is investing in two new expansion programs at its Sebree, Kentucky, smelter, which will increase its production of both value-added and secondary aluminum. The programs will improve the smelter’s product mix by adding approximately 90,000 tonnes of additional billet capacity to the Sebree casthouse and to increase the […]
By Alton Tabereaux, Contributing Editor. Production by Country As prices generally increased throughout 2017, world primary aluminum production increased 3.4% compared with the previous year (Table I). China is the world’s largest producer of electrolytic aluminum, making up over half of the global output. The terminal consumption of electrolytic aluminum in China is mainly concentrated in […]
Yesterday, President Trump signed proclamations to formally adjust the tariffs on aluminum (10%), stating national security as a major reason for their implementation under Section 232. These tariffs will go into effect 15 days from this signing. Canada and Mexico are temporarily exempt from the tariffs, depending on the outcome of NAFTA negotiations. Other countries will also have an […]
Earlier this week, President Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on U.S. imports of aluminum (10%) to be applied across the board to all countries for an unspecified period of time. This is in response to reports regarding the 232 Investigation that were recently released by the U.C. Department of Commerce, which looked into the […]
The U.S. launched a new trade enforcement complaint against the People’s Republic of China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning China’s subsidies to certain producers of primary aluminum. These subsidies appear to be provided through artificially cheap loans from banks and through artificially low-priced inputs for aluminum production, such as coal, electricity, and alumina. […]
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By Goran Djukanovic, Aluminum Market Analyst & Consultant. Uncertainty hangs over the primary aluminum industry in U.S., or what has been left of it. Plummeting aluminum prices and high electricity costs resulted in closure or curtailment of some three-fourths of primary aluminum production in the last five years, leaving less than 1 million tonnes of […]
