Alcoa is looking to sell 10 of its closed or curtailed sites to the data centre industry.
The news comes from Alcoa CEO, William F. Oplinger, who spoke at the BMO Global Metals, Mining and Critical Minerals Conference in Florida, US.
The statements were made during Alcoa’s investor presentation, where the company presented its outlook in the current market, including factors that could affect the present quarter’s financial results.
The first sale of an Alcoa site is expected to be completed by the end of June 2026.
“We have 10 sites that we're focused on selling into that space,” Mr Oplinger stated.
“We think we'll have the first sale in the first half of this year. There are two that could follow quickly after that.”
Mr Oplinger also added that Alcoa has historically looked to maximise value and minimise liabilities when selling assets, but the question is now how much difference AI will mean to valuations.
“What we're really trying to understand is the value in a data centre world or an AI world of our individual sites,” Mr Oplinger said.
High aluminium prices have not destroyed demand in the US, but low prices for raw material alumina have left 50% of the world's refineries cash negative, which would lead to cutbacks in alumina production, although not from Alcoa according to Mr Oplinger.
