CRU: Supply side the focus on word of new sanctions and smelter curtailments

This week Magnitude 7 Metals issued a statement to announce the curtailment of its New Madrid smelter in Marston, Mo. The plant, one of only five remaining primary smelters in the US, employs approximately 450 union workers. With over 275,000 metric tons (mt) of capacity per year, New Madrid is the second-largest plant by capacity in the US and produced over 160,000 mt of primary in 2023, CRU estimates.

“The curtailment is a crisis for workers and the local community, and intervention from the state and federal government is needed to modernize and transform the plant,” the statement said before moving onto one of the key causes of the curtailment: “The single largest cost of smelting is electricity (40% of total production costs). While US electricity costs are undesirably high for aluminum relative to global rates secured by major aluminum producers, there are ways to reduce them. With new federal programs and the increasing buildout of renewable energy, there are creative solutions to securing the low-carbon, affordable energy that aluminum smelters need.”