After six years of lying idle the Alumar aluminum smelter in Brazil is about to restart operations.
Alcoa, which owns a 60% stake in the joint venture plant, said on Monday it will reactivate its 268,000-tonne-per-year share with first metal due in the second quarter and full capacity timed for the fourth quarter of next year.
The resurrection of the Sao Luis smelter is a sign of the changed times in the global aluminum market.
Back in 2015 aluminum was locked in a multi-year downtrend and the London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month price sank to a six-year low of $1432.50 per tonne in November of that year.