At least two bidders, including stalking horse New Day Aluminum LLC, were still competing late afternoon Tuesday for the right to acquire Noranda Aluminum's remaining upstream assets, sources confirmed to S&P Global Platts.
Those remaining upstream assets are the 1.2 million mt/year Gramercy alumina refinery in Louisiana and St. Ann bauxite mining operation in Jamaica.
They said New Day, an affiliate of DaDa Holdings LLC, a company newly formed by former senior management of Wise Metals, was joined at the auction in New York City by at least one, unidentified bidder.
A receptionist in the New York offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the site of the auction, said in a phone call that bidding was continuing as of 4:45 pm EDT Tuesday. The auction started at 1 pm EDT.
If history is any guide, bidders possibly were headed for a long night -- a July 7 auction for Noranda's downstream business lasted until nearly midnight before Swedish aluminum rolled products producer Granges emerged victorious, edging out US-based JW Aluminum. The downstream assets comprised three active aluminum rolling mills in Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina, with combined yearly capacity of 495 million pounds. The $324.2 million sale closed August 22.
New Day offered $21.5 million for Gramercy and St. Ann, both of which continue to operate.
Noranda recently agreed to sell its idled 263,000 mt/year New Madrid primary aluminum smelter in southeastern Missouri to Swiss-based ARG International AG for $13.7 million.
