(AMM) Alba will not supply aluminum to US—for now

Aluminium Bahrain BSC could resume sales into North America in the mid-term, but for at least the next few years the smelter’s full production is earmarked for customers in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Aluminium Bahrain BSC (Alba) could resume sales into North America in the mid-term, but for at least the next few years the smelter’s full production is earmarked for customers in the Middle East, Europe and Asia, a top company executive told AMM. "The biggest issue we have with going into North America now is—in terms of metal allocation—we’d have to take from somewhere else," Alba chief financial officer Tim Murray said on the sidelines of AMM’s Aluminum Summit in New York.

Alba, which operates an 870,000-tonne-per-year primary aluminum smelter in Bahrain, sells about 45-percent of its output in Bahrain, 12 to 13 percent to neighboring Saudi Arabia and 12 to 13 percent to the rest of the Middle East, as well as some 15 to 20 percent apiece to buyers in Europe and Asia, Murray said.