The economics of shutting and restarting primary aluminium smelting capacity

Conference · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:371968

Driscoll, K J ^[1]

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1. CRU International, Ltd., London (United Kingdom)

In recent years the aluminum industry in the Western world has been operating well below capacity, with cutbacks in production due largely to the depressed aluminum market conditions of 1992 and 1993. Since mid-1995, however, aluminum producers have begun restarting idled capacity. Extensive efforts and preparation are required both to close capacity in an orderly manner and to restart idled capacity. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the costs of shutting capacity, maintaining idled capacity, and restarting potlines. Costs have been calculated for a smelter which may be considered representative of the industry as a whole. Technical aspects and commercial data are outlined for the representative smelter, with costs presented under a variety of shutdown and restart conditions. Additionally, the time required to bring capacity back on-line is examined for several scenarios, and the economic impact of idled capacity is discussed.

• OSTI ID: 371968
• Report Number(s): CONF-960202--; ISBN 0-87339-312-0
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM
CONTRACTS
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
COST ESTIMATION
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC POWER
MAINTENANCE
MANPOWER
MANUFACTURING
MATERIALS
SHUTDOWN
START-UP
TIME DEPENDENCE
TRAINING