Alcan to boost Kitimat production

With an improved outlook for water levels in B.C.’s Nechako reservoir and for aluminum prices, Alcan (AL-T) says it will re-start 60,000 tonnes of idled aluminum production capacity at its Kitimat smelter in the northern region of the province.

The increase will bring the operation up to 240,000 tonnes, still off the nameplate capacity.

After several years of low water levels, which forced the partial closure last year of the Kitimat smelter, snow levels in the Kemano reservoir have been rising. Alcan owns the power-generating dam there.

Alcan had reduced its Kitimat smelter production in December 2000 and again in June 2001, from an annual production rate of 277,000 tonnes to 180,000 tonnes, in response to a critical water shortage in the Nechako Reservoir, which supplies water to Alcan’s power generating station at nearby Kemano, B.C.

The chronic water shortages also allowed Alcan to reduce its metal production by half in order to meet its obligations to provide power to the province, as well as sell additional power to the energy-starved northwestern American states.

The re-start is scheduled to begin in August 2002.

In other news, Alcan has wrapped up the sale of its Guillaume-Tremblay dross processing facility in Quebec to Scepter Aluminum, a privately-held U.S.-based recycling company. Under the deal, the facility will continue to process dross (slags, skimmings and spilling), from Alcan’s Quebec smelters.