Alcoa and Oxbow temporarily idled a calciner and a port facilities on the storm-battered US Gulf Coast Tuesday as heavy rain from Tropical storm Harvey continued to fall in the low-lying region.
Alcoa closed its newly restarted petroleum coke calciner in Lake Charles, Louisiana, because of a "power disruption" related to the storm, company spokesman Jim Beck told S&P Global Platts in an interview.
Beck stressed the Lake Charles calciner itself had not yet sustained any major damage from the storm, although some ditches near the plant have filled with water.
"We have temporarily halted the calciner," he said, adding it is too soon to say if the facility will be back in operation Wednesday or later this week.
The calciner's idling, if short term as anticipated, should not cause any supply problems for Alcoa, he said. "We have adequate inventories at our other facilities," he said.
Oxbow, meanwhile, idled its Texas City Marine Terminal and its Calcining International and Oxbow Sulphur office in The Woodslands, Texas, both on or near a Gulf Coast that has taken a severe pounding since Harvey roared ashore near Rockport, Texas, on the night of August 25.
An Oxbow official said its two calciners in Port Arthur, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have been operating since the storm hit and that a shipment from Port Arthur shipped a little early to avoid the storm. The next calcined petcoke shipment is set for early September. "We'll have to see how the port operates from now going forward," the Oxbow official said.
Alcoa's calciner resumed operation just a month ago after being idled for 19 months, after a failure of the rotary kiln December 25, 2015.
It calcines green petroleum coke and supplies some of Alcoa's aluminum smelters with CPC, used to make carbon anodes, the carbon source in the aluminum smelting process.
Alcoa also evacuated all 58 of its employees at its idled Point Comfort alumina refinery on the Gulf Coast before the hurricane hit. The refinery, with a capacity of 1 million mt/year, has been curtailed since early 2016.
An Oxbow official said the Texas City terminal closed Tuesday but tentatively is scheduled to reopen Wednesday. The Woodlands office is expected to reopen Thursday.
Located in the eighth-largest port in America, the Texas City terminal provides bulk handling services to neighboring refineries and industry. Oxbow says the facility supports Texas refineries and industry, providing the receipt, storage and vessel loading of coal and petroleum coke sold both internationally and domestically.
