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February 27, 2008
Alcoa Fjardaál: Downline aluminum production
The production of aluminum wire has started in the Alcoa Fjardaál casthouse in Reydarfjordur. When the smelter has reached full production, about a quarter of its production will be used to produce aluminum wire.
The first transport containers, filled with wire, will leave Iceland next week, and it is expected that almost 90,000 tons of wire will be marketed each year. The wires will be used for high voltage lines of the kind that transfer power from the Fljótsdalur Power Station to the Alcoa Fjarðaál smelter in Reydarfjördur.
“I’m happy to announce that downline production has now started in the Alcoa Fjarðaál plant. There is a lot of demand for aluminum wire in the global market, and the price is good, so the wire production will create considerable value added income for the company,” says Ormarr Örlygsson, Alcoa Fjardaál’s Casthouse Manager.
Around twenty people will work on the wire production alone. The rodding mill, the set of machines producing the wire, is actually a separate factory within the smelter, manufactured by the Italian company Continuus Properzi. A team of five people from the manufacturer have lately been working on the setup and testing of the unit, with Alcoa employees from the rodding mills in the Baie Comeau and Bécancour smelters in Canada. The rodding mill receives molten aluminum and casts it into an aluminum bar, which is then rolled into a wire, 9 to 28 mm thick. The wire is the wound onto hanks, each one of which weighs about 3.6 tons, with up to 20 km of wire. The rodding mill can produce wire continuously for three calendar days.
In addition to aluminum wire, Alcoa Fjarðaál produces high quality aluminum and various metal blends for all kinds of industrial production, including the automotive industry. The startup of the smelter is on full steam and plans assume that it will have reached stability in operations by the end of this year. When full production will be reached, the export value of Alcoa Fjarðaál’s production will amount to 60-70 billions ISK (882-1,029 millions US$) each year, given the current price of aluminum and rate of exchange.
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