It means capacity there has doubled from 1.5Mt/y to 3.6Mt/y and Alcoa’s share of the expansion will be 1.1Mt.
Alumar, located in Maranhão state outside São Luis, Brazil, is jointly owned by Alcoa Aluminio and Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals/AWAC (54%), BHP Billiton (36%) and Rio Tinto Alcan (10%). Alcoa will manage the facility.
The AWAC share of the Alumar refinery expansion will be supplied by the Juruti bauxite mine. The expansion cost Alcoa $1bn. Production at the refinery will reach full capacity by the end of Q1 2010.
Among those present at the inauguration was Brazilian president Lula da Silva.