Alcoa Corp., Pittsburgh, announces plans to restart three of five potlines at its Warrick Operations aluminum smelter near Evansville, Indiana, an action that will further improve the competitiveness of the on-site rolling mill.
The process to restart the three lines, with 161,400 metric tons of annual capacity, will begin immediately and is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2018. The three potlines will directly supply the Warrick rolling mill, which serves the North American market with flat-rolled aluminum for the food and beverage can packaging industry. The smelter’s molten metal will supplement purchased scrap metal and other raw materials that the Warrick site will continue to procure.
“By restarting a portion of the Warrick smelter, we will provide an efficient source of metal for the co-located rolling mill and help it meet an anticipated increase in production volumes,” said Tim Reyes, President of Alcoa’s Aluminum business unit. “The action will enable us to more fully utilize the assets at this integrated site.”
The smelter at Warrick closed in March of 2016. Two of the five smelting potlines will be classified as curtailed capacity and will remain idle. After this partial restart, Alcoa will have approximately 886,000 metric tons idled of its total smelting capacity of 3.4 million metric tons.
Alcoa Warrick Operations is comprised of the smelter and the rolling operations, which includes state-of-the-art casting, hot and cold rolling, slitting and coating capabilities. The operations also include the power supply for the smelter and rolling operations, consisting of a coal mine that fuels four generating units with a combined net capacity of about 750 megawatts. Three of those units are wholly-owned by Alcoa Power Generating Inc. A fourth unit, Warrick Unit 4, with 300 megawatts of net capacity, is owned in a 50-50 partnership with Vectren, a utility headquartered in Evansville.
