Alcoa announces restart milestone at Alumar smelter in Brazil

© Shutterstock

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Corporation announced last week that its Alumar smelter in Sao Luis, Brazil, has energized its first 20 smelting pots as part of the location’s restart of aluminum capacity.

The smelter is owned by Alcoa and South 32 Limited and has three smelting lines with 710 pots. More capacity is being added, the company said, and the smelter will reach its full capacity of 447,000 metric tons by the end of 2022.

“The restart of Alumar will build on our competitive strengths in the global and local marketplace and expand our ability to supply growing demand for sustainably-sourced aluminum,” said John Slaven, executive vice president and COO at Alcoa. “We’re proud of the positive impact the restart will bring to our customers, investors, employees, and community stakeholders in Brazil’s Maranhão state.”

In September 2021, Alcoa announced it would restart 268,000 metric tons of annual smelting capacity, the company’s share at the Alumar smelter. Alcoa Aluminio, a subsidiary of Alcoa Corporation, owns 60 percent of the smelting and casting capacity, with South 32 owning the remaining 40 percent.

Restarting the smelter required hiring more than 750 employees, in addition to the 850 direct employees at the site’s refinery. Alcoa anticipated the cost of the restart would be approximately $75 million, including $10 million in capital expenses. The company said the restart would mean roughly 80 percent of its 2.99 million metric tons of global aluminum smelting capacity would be in operation.