Alba announces Line 6 go-ahead
Aluminium Bahrain, otherwise known as Alba, has announced it will go ahead with the construction of its 6th potline.
The actual construction is expected to begin in 2016, and will be completed by 2019. It will add 514,000t to the plant, taking it to 1.45 million tonnes in total. (Unfortunately, the press release claims that the expansion will make it the biggest single site smelter in the world. There are bigger single site smelters in China even now, never mind 2019.)
It comes as no surprise that Alba will use the Dubal DX+ technology. The press release does not say what amperage the line will run at.
Line 6 has been a long time coming. When I visited Line 5 in 2004, the locals told me then that they had built the line with an eye on eventually adding a sixth line.
The announcement that the project would add 514KT of capacity is a step up from the original working idea of half that. The press release goes on to say that the total bill also went up by US$1 billion, to US$3.5 billion. The cost includes an additional power station delivering 1.35MW to the plant.
Presumably this means that the Alba calciner will stop marketing excess capacity come 2019.
Congratulations to the Alba team and good luck with the construction.
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