COMMENTARY/Medium Term--Capacity and Industry Structure

摘要

Table 6 shows that at the end of 2007 world primary aluminium smelter capacity was 41.19 million t/y at 260 identified plants. Of the world total 7.6m t/y was the older Soderberg anode technology, a proportion that is steadily falling as Soderberg smelters are closed or converted to prebaked anode technology. Table 7 lists all committed changes to primary smelter capacity. By 2012 these projects will add 8.00 million tonnes (net) to world capacity, of which 1.8m tonnes was scheduled to start up in 2008. Since the last report Nordural has announced a new smelter in Iceland at 250,000 tonnes and a small expansion has been committed by the new owners at the smelter at Vlissingen in Netherlands.