US aluminum producer Noranda Aluminum, continuing to unwind its business in federal bankruptcy court, has agreed to sell an unspecified amount of magnesium alloys to Portland, Oregon-based Leeds Northwest LLC, a new court filing says.
Noranda told the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis Monday that magnesium alloys will be sold to Leeds "free and clear of all liens, claims, encumbrances or interests" unless a written objection is submitted to the court by August 29.
Leeds has agreed to pay $187,392 for the magnesium alloys, located in New Madrid, Missouri, Noranda said. In mid-March, Noranda idled its 263,000 mt/year New Madrid primary aluminum smelter in the southeastern Missouri community near the Mississippi River, and it is not expected to reopen before the end of 2016.
Thomas Handy, Leeds' owner, said Monday in an interview his company is acting as a "broker" for the Noranda magnesium alloys and has "a number" of potential customers interested in buying them from Leeds.
Leeds operates a plant in Stevensville, Montana, that designs, produces and patents specialty alloys for a variety of markets, including automotive and recreational. "In this case, we're acting as a broker," Handy said.
Noranda filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization February 8 after complaining for months about "liquidity" problems.
Last week, Judge Barry Schermer approved the sale of Noranda's downstream business, which includes currently active aluminum rolling mills in Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina with capacity of 495 million pounds/year, to Sweden's Granges at an enterprise value of $324.2 million.
Noranda is preparing to auction its upstream business as well. Qualified bidders have until September 15 to submit offers for the assets, which include the idled smelter, 1.2 million mt/year Gramercy alumina refinery in Burnside, Louisiana, and the St. Ann bauxite mining operation in Jamaica.
If multiple bids are received, an auction will be held September 22, with a court hearing September 27 to approve the sale.
