Groaning aluminium companies get power relief-recycling catches on within US Al industry

摘要

US aluminium mills in the states of Washington, Montana and Oregon heaved a sigh of relief over the recent announcement by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a quasi-governmental agency that markets power generated at the region's federal hydroelectric dams, that it would provide millions of dollars to mills to enable them to buy inexpensive electricity in the next half decade, the agency said. A BPA spokesman maintained that the move will provide relief to aluminium smelters which were groaning under rising electricity prices. The plan, to be implemented this autumn, envisages annual allocations of 59M dollars by BPA to aluminium producers, enabling them to buy an average of 560MW of power each day for a year in the open market. The BPA is now also keen to supply power to other customers such as public utility outlets.