An aluminium hot mill damaged by fire is expected to resume production in the next few weeks.
The hot mill at Novelis’ plant in Oswego, New York, USA, was not expected to restart until the end of June.
But, in its financial report published today, the American aluminium company said the hot mill will restart shortly.
The Oswego plant experienced two separate, significant fires, in September and November 2025.
All employees were safely evacuated and there were no injuries during either incident.
Both fires were contained to the hot mill area; all other critical assets at Oswego were unaffected and are operational.
The company said: “The Oswego plant has made strong progress in advancing recovery efforts, and commissioning activities are ramping up.
“We expect the hot mill to be back in service in the next few weeks, positioning us to support pent-up demand and normalise shipments over time.”
Estimated impact from both fires was approximately $1.7 billion.
In addition, production interruptions caused rolled product shipments to be an estimated 73 kilotonnes lower than expected, resulting in an estimated negative $53 million impact on Adjusted EBITDA.
Novelis said its net income was also impacted by the fire, with a net loss of $84 million, compared to a net income of $294 million the prior year.
However, net sales increased 4% versus the prior year period to $4.8 billion, mainly driven by higher average aluminium prices.
Steve Fisher, President and CEO of Novelis, said: “We begin the new fiscal year energised by the strength of the underlying business and confident in our ability to capture strong market demand for high-recycled-content, low carbon aluminium.
“At the same time, we are firmly focused on execution - serving our customers, commissioning our state-of-the-art aluminium plant in Bay Minette, and safely restarting Oswego within the next few weeks, well ahead of our previous estimate of end of June.”
