Medium Term - Capacity and Industry Structure

摘要

Table 6 shows that at the end of 2005 world primary aluminium smelter capacity was 35.1 million t/y at 257 plants. Of the world total 7.2m t/y was the older Soderberg anode technology, a proportion that is steadily falling as Soderberg smelters are closed or converted to prebaked anode technology. Taking account of the effective permanent closure of idle smelters in the USA, together with closure of small smelters in France and Switzerland and a shutdown in Germany, primary aluminium capacity in the western countries fell slightly in 2005. This was despite two major expansions, at Alba in Bahrain (316,000 t/y) and Alouette in Canada (307,000 t/y).