Reuters reported that Azerbaijan has launched a new aluminum plant with an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes and plans to restart production of alumina later this year at another plant.
An official from the company which manages both plants said that an old Soviet era aluminum plant in the town of Sumgait was closed down in February 2009 due to the global financial crisis, dragged down by debt obligations it could not meet.
A new plant in the town of Gyanja was constructed by a Chinese branch of Australia based engineering company SMEC.
An official from the Azeraluminium Company said that "We have launched first 18 electrolytic cells at a new plant in Gyanja in October and plan to launch all 80 cells by December 5th to 6th 2011 which means that annual output will reach 50,000 tonnes."
He said that Asia's largest trader, Noble Resources will sell 98% of aluminum produced at the new plant mainly to China, Iran and Turkey adding that the plant's output could double by 2013. Production of alumina could restart at the Soviet era plant in Gyanja in November this year.
An official said that we expect to restart production of alumina in Gyanja after two and a half years of this plant being on standstill. 280,000 tonnes of alumina could be produced at the Gyanja plant with 100,000 tonnes to be sent to the new aluminum plant and 180,000 tonnes to be exported mainly to Tajikistan.
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