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March 25, 2008
300 pots started
A milestone was reached in the Alcoa Fjardaál smelter on Good Friday, March 21st 2008, when pot number 300 was started. The startup of all pots in one of the two potrooms is now finished and it is expected that the startup of all 336 pots will be finished shortly.
The startup of the Alcoa Fjardaál smelter went on full steam last November, when the delivery of power from the Fljótsdalur Power Station began. Since then, approximately two pots have been started per day, but once in a while the startup has been paused in order to reach stability in the production. The operation of the smelter will presumably be stable by the end of this year, and then the total production will be 346,000 tpy of aluminum.
Presently, 850 tons of aluminum are produced on each calendar day, and each week, around 6,000 tons of aluminum are exported from Reydarfjördur to the European market. The casthouse is now in full operation, casting pure high-quality aluminum, many kinds of alloy blends, for instance for the automotive industry, and aluminum wire for high voltage power lines.
Recruitment for the smelter is almost finished, and now the staff counts around 400 people. Approximately one-third of the employees are women, which is the highest ratio in any of Alcoa’s smelters worldwide. Whereas more than half of the workers are from East Iceland, the rest of them come mostly from different parts of Iceland.
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