Century Aluminum has shelved, at least temporarily, plans to shut one-third, or about 70,000 mt, of production at its about 210,000 mt/year Sebree smelter in western Kentucky, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
"We're going to be able to operate at full capacity for right now," company spokesman Kenny Barkley said in an interview.
Earlier this fall, Chicago-based Century said it was mulling temporarily idling one of Sebree's three potlines because of low aluminum prices, but since then, "we've made some changes behind the scenes -- some organizational changes" Barkley said without further elaboration. The moves apparently improved Sebree's operational and profitability outlook.
About 50 miles away, the company's 244,000 mt/year Hawesville smelter in Hancock County, Kentucky, currently is running at 40% for economic reasons.
Sebree's development comes as officials with Century and Santee Cooper, South Carolina's state-owned utility, struggle to work out a last-minute deal that could allow Century's 224,000 mt/year Mt. Holly smelter at Goose Creek to avoid a shutdown by the end of the month.
Barkley said the parties are talking, but referred further questions to another Century spokeswoman who could not be immediately reached for comment.
That spokeswoman, Samantha Dubay, confirmed Monday that Century began shutting down the first of two potlines at Mt. Holly. The second is scheduled to enter shutdown mode December 26 and complete the process by year's end.
But Century is floating an 11th-hour proposal to continue operating Mt. Holly at 50%.
Mt. Holly buys three-fourths of its electricity from suppliers outside South Carolina and the remaining 25% from Santee Cooper, which transmits all of the power to the smelter. Santee Cooper's board of directors recently rejected Century's request to begin buying all its power from a third-party supplier with Santee Cooper still transmitting it to the plant in return for a payment of $60 million over five years.
Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore said in an email Wednesday that there were "no updates" on Mt. Holly.
Century has long complained about Mt. Holly's electricity costs for smelters, thought to be in the range of $50/MWh. Alcoa recently reversed plans to close its 130,000 mt/year Massena West aluminum smelter in New York after the company reached an incentive agreement with the state.
