The smelters of Europe’s major alumunium remains curtailing production due to the soaring cost of energy. The output of light metal from the region has plummeted by as much as 550.000 tonnes for last year. This reduction continues to accelerate. Even before the Russian invasion, aluminum smelting is always an energy-intensive business. European smelters for long have struggled with the soaring price of energy.
It becomes a bad sign in Europe’s energy crunch with perennial rising prices that renew in fresh highs. The price on Europe’s aluminum smelters is rising high every time without any sign of relief. This is the reason why buyers tend to purchase physical premiums. Furthermore, some products are subject to be sold as far as China.
The total of primary aluminum in Western European output is as much as 244.000 tonnes as of April. This is based on the latest assessment from the International Aluminum Institute (IAI). In the IAI production, the system is to meet the requirement of delivering accurate data for private companies. This total was below last year’s run-rate in April by 13.2%. It means that it sank to a new low of 2.97m tonnes.
The annual production currently has hit 470.000 tonnes from last year’s 3.44m tonnes in May. It happened just before the power price started to escalate. The most huge single loss is 228.000 tonne per year at San Ciprian smelter Span. It is the owner of Alcoa AA.N that idled until 2024. The firm would reopen again with a renewable power sourcing.
Actually, many Western Europe’s other aluminum smelters belong to private firms. In other words, no publicly-available quarterly updates. Several have warned in the fourth quarter last year, that the firms would curtail aluminum capacity.
