Selected 2004 Annual Report Summaries: Aluminum

摘要

NOTABLE: Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Alcan is one of the largest producers of primary aluminum in the world, with a production capacity of 3,400 kt/y. It has operating facilities in 58 countries and regions. Fourteen of Alcan's smelters set new production records in 2004, when the company produced 3,382 kt of primary aluminum, about 1,000 kt more than in 2003. The increase reflected the addition of smelters acquired in the 2003 purchase of French aluminum producer Pechiney, the purchase of 50 percent interest in a 150 kt pre-bake smelter in the Ningxia autonomous region of China, and production improvements at smelters in the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, and Canada. In December 2004, the first pots at the expanded Aluminerie Alouette smelter in Sept-lies, Quebec, became operational. Alcan has a 40 percent interest in that facility. The expansion, completed in September 2005, more than doubled the smelter's annual production, from 243 kt/y to 550 kt/y. Also in December 2004. Alcan announced plans to sell its controlling interest in the Athens-based Aluminium de Grece to Mytilineos Holdings S.A, That sale was completed in March 2005. Alcan in April 2003 permanently closed the four Soderberg potlines at the 60-year-old Arvida smelter in Jonquiere, Quebec, due to the age and environmental performance of the technology. This reduced the company's production capacity by 90 kt/y. Alcan conducted detailed engineering studies and cost evaluations for construction of an 80 kt/y plant to treat spent potlining using its low caustic leaching and liming -process. The treatment plant is to be constructed at the Jonquiere complex in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec. Spent potlining, which is designated as a hazardous waste, is the used refractory lining of smelter pots.