A modern aluminum smelter has a capacity of 1-2 million tons of aluminum per annum which requires more than 0.5-1.0 0.5-1.0 tons of heat treated (baked) carbon anodes per year.
Alcan will own 40percentt of the Alouette smelter, which has a capacity of 243,000 metric tons a year.
The largest aluminum smelter in the world (capacity one million metric tons per year) is located in the Siberian city of Bratsk.
Production capacity at smelters in Massena, N.Y., will be reduced by 24percentt.
Alcoa Inc. said yesterday that it would eliminate 275 jobs in Texas and Washington State and trim production capacity at smelters in New York State because of rising costs.
Investors are building two smelters, and doubling the capacity of another, to handle the boom in copper, nickel and other metals, taxing the nation's power supply.
Schneider estimates that the shifting energy situation in California caused a 6% drop in global aluminum capacity, as smelters in the Pacific Northwest decided to forego aluminum production in favor of supplying power.
American supplies are tight, partly because Mexico's Torreon smelter is running at below capacity for environmental reasons.
On completion of this first phase, the smelter will have an initial capacity of 360 000 tonnes per year.
While Indonesia's export ban has failed to work to the nation's benefit for copper because the country only has one smelter that is already at capacity, the ban is expected to boost downstream producing investment in nickel.
