A second aluminum potline should be operating again later this week at Alcoa's Warrick Operations in Warrick County, Indiana, a union local official said Wednesday.
Alcoa in 2017 decided to restart three of the five potlines idled more than a year ago for economic reasons.
Chris Horn, president of United Steelworkers Local 104, told S&P Global Platts that Potline 4 could be re-energized as soon as Thursday. The smelter's first potline, No. 5, began operating late last year and had produced about 1 million lb of metal by Christmas, he said.
Potline 5 has been running steadily since then, albeit experiencing a couple of minor issues, Horn said.
The third and final potline Alcoa is currently planning to restart, Potline 3, is scheduled to be operational this spring, although it could be sooner than that, he said.
Once the three potlines are running again, Warrick is expected to produce about 161,400 mt/year. The smelter's capacity is 269,000 mt/year when all five potlines are operational.
Horn said Alcoa still is bringing scrap into the plant for remelt purposes, but eventually aims to be "self-sustaining."
Alcoa also operates an aluminum rolling mill at Warrick, a nearby power plant to supply it with electricity and owns coal reserves in the county.
