Metalnewsnet 28 Jun ： Aluminum Bahrain, one of the world's largest aluminum smelters, plans to boost its annual production capacity to 1.4 million mt by 2014 -- from 870,000-880,000 mt/year currently -- by expanding two of its five potlines and adding a sixth one, a senior official at the company told Platts Tuesday. Tim Murray, Alba's chief financial officer, said that the new potline should be in production by end-2014, bringing an additional 400,000 mt of annual production capacity to the smelter. Speaking on the sidelines of CRU's 15th world aluminum conference in Oslo, Murray said Alba is also planning to ramp up production at the smelter's fourth and fifth potlines by about 100,000 mt in the next year or two by increasing the current power supply and adding more pots to the lines. "If we optimize and do everything we can it will take us to 1.4 million [mt/year]," he said, referring to the smelter's total production capacity. The plans are subject to board approval and the completion of feasibility studies. "We've done some initial studies in terms of how we can best optimize the plant, including Line Six," he said. "Now the plan would be to do bankable feasibility studies," Murray said, adding that the study of Line Six will be conducted "probably" in September.
The company has yet to decide on how to secure gas supplies that will provide power to the sixth potline. "We may do a scenario where we just import the power from the grid. We may build a power station or we may import, or we may do a hybrid of smaller power stations and imports," Murray said. He added: "Bahrain has recently built several new power stations and they have excess capacity." The Alba smelter, located in the Askar industrial area near Bahrain, is 77% owned by the government of Bahrain. The remaining shareholders are the Saudi Public Investment Fund (20%) and Breton Investments (3%). (from Platts) |
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