Sep 12 2007
Alcoa announced that it has opened a new 280,000 metric ton per year anode plant in Mosjoen, Norway. The facility will produce anodes for Alcoa’s Fjardaal aluminum smelter in Iceland and the Mosjoen aluminum smelter in Norway. Alcoa built the facility with managing partner Elkem Aluminium ANS, which has a 36% share in the Mosjoen anode plant. Alcoa owns 50% of the partnership Elkem Aluminium ANS, which operates aluminum smelters in Mosjoen and Lista, Norway.
Anodes are the electrodes toward which current flows during the smelting process of making aluminum. Anodes from the new plant have already been delivered to the Mosjoen smelter and the first shipments to Fjardaal are expected to start this month.
“This new plant was completed on time and safely and it is one of the world’s largest and most environmentally friendly facilities of its type,” said Bernt Reitan, Executive Vice President of Alcoa and Group President, Global Primary Products, who attended the event. “This facility will enable us to continue to reduce production costs and maintain our competitiveness in the marketplace.”
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg participated in an inauguration ceremony held on August 30.
Alcoa in Norway
Alcoa established a presence in Norway through a 1962 partnership with Elkem ASA. Today, Elkem Aluminium NS, the partnership owned 50/50 by Orkla and Alcoa, operates smelters in Mosjøen and Lista and supply the European aluminum market. Alcoa's automotive casting operation in Lista, established in 1995, produces wheel suspension components for leading European automakers.