Norsk Hydro to cut primary aluminium production at its Slovalco plant

A fully integrated Norwegian aluminium company Norsk Hydro announced on Monday, December 2, that it plans to cut 20 per cent production at its majority-owned Slovalco primary aluminium plant in Slovakia. Weak market is one of the reasons for the production cut, said the company.

Located at the center of the actively growing aluminium market in Central Europe, Slovalco’s 55.3 per cent of the share is owned by Hydro Aluminium AS, while the rest (44.7 per cent) owned by Penta Investments.

In 2018, Hydro had decided to expand remelt operations at its Slovalco plant in collaboration with joint-venture partner PENTA, aiming at producing and supplying the “greenest” aluminium metal in the industry. The expansion was for facilitating production of primary aluminium as well as for serving as a remelter for conversion scrap from the extrusion plants in Central Europe.

Currently, Slovalco has an annual production capacity of 175,000 tonnes of primary aluminium and a casthouse capacity of close to 200,000 tonnes, said Hydro in a statement on December 2. The curtailment of production is expected to commence in January 2020.