Who's down in the Northwest?

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Who's down in the Northwest?

Mead _ Kaiser Aluminum Corp.'s smelter is idled until at least October. Capacity: 200,000 metric tons per year (mtpy).

Tacoma _ Kaiser's smelter is off line until at least October. Capacity: 73,000 mtpy.

Ferndale _ Alcoa Inc.'s Intalco smelter is closed for up to two years, although rates will be revisited every six months for possible restart. Capacity: 270,000 mtpy.

Wenatchee _ Alcoa's smelter will be idled for 15 months beginning July 1. Capacity: 220,000 mtpy.

Columbia Falls, Mont. _ The Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. is down for up to two years. Capacity: 185,000 mtpy.

Goldendale _ Golden Northwest Aluminum Co.'s smelter is curtailed until October. The company is negotiating with BPA for a longer curtailment. Capacity: 160,000 mtpy.

The Dalles, Ore. _ Golden Northwest's smelter is off line until October. The company is dealing with BPA for further curtailment. Capacity: 90,000 mtpy.

Longview _ McCook Metals Group idled smelter it recently purchased from Alcoa until April 2002. BPA may negotiate to keep smelter down longer. Capacity: 204,000 mtpy.

Vancouver, Wash. _ Vanalco permanently closed the smelter last year. Capacity: 110,000.

Troutdale, Ore. _ Alcoa switched off the smelter last year with no intention of reopening. Capacity: 120,000 mtpy.

Alcan _ Smelter in Kitimat, B.C., running at 50 percent strength. Capacity: 275,000 mtpy.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=061701&ID=s978819&cat=section.business

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 17, 2001

Answers

This "sacrifice" in electrical baseload may have a great deal to do with why the California and Western electricity crisis now seems to be less severe and intense than foreseen earlier.

This is a case of "triage" at work. All this may be less bad than the alternatives, which are obscene electricity costs and frequent blackouts (which tend to lose effectiveness as their frequency and duration increase). But it's hard to tell this to the affected laid off workers and shareholders of companies whose Capital has been idled.

How about a electrical generator profits tax, to be used to compensate these affected people, esp. unemployment compensation and retraining and outplacement for the laid off workers? Fat chance.

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), June 18, 2001.


That's an amazing list of shut-down aluminum capacty. It might be of some help in alleviating, temporarily, power demand, but you've got to be curious about what it's going to do to the economy.

-- Sparky (case@webtwn.com), June 18, 2001.

Can someone provide insight as to what exactly the smelters do. I don't have a clue except that I suspect that sometype of shortage is not far off the horizon. Thanks, in advance for input.

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), June 18, 2001.

Doris--roughly speaking, ore is a metal that is chemically combined with other elements. In order to use the metal, it has to be de-combined, and the other stuff discarded. It takes energy to break the chemical bonds; in the case of aluminum, it takes a LOT of energy. It's probably for that reason that aluminum was not isolated as a metal until the nineteenth century (though I have heard rumor of a belt made of cast aluminum plates, from about AD 100 China). HTH

-- L. Hunter Cassells (mellyrn@castlemark-honey.com), June 19, 2001.

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