Slovenian aluminium smelter Talum said this week that it has cut production down by 80 percent of its nameplate capacity due to steep power costs.
According to a report by Reuters, the 84 thousand metric tons per annum aluminium smelter has been operating at half production for some time.
A spokesperson from the aluminium smelter said in an email that the plant is already at one-fifth production.
“We are reducing primary production and are currently at approximately 20% capacity.”
The spokesperson went on to say that the aluminium smelter is utilizing scrap aluminium in its melting furnaces to reach its current production rate of 11 thousand metric tons per annum.
Talum’s spokesperson said the fact that the plant had to halt a majority of the aluminium production the plant smelts, which is critical for sustainable technology, is “absurd.”
Currently, European production outside of Russia totals about 4 million metric tons. One million metric tons per annum of production has been shuttered in the last year and a half, and another half million metric tons is on the chopping block, per Citi analysts.
Talum’s radical production reductions come on the heels of Norsk Hydro’s announcement that it is halting production at its plant in Slovakia, which has a nameplate capacity of 175 thousand metric tons per annum.
Analysts say the outcome of Europe’s ongoing production cuts for consumers will be higher costs due to widening production deficits. However, due to a slowdown predicted for the continent’s economy, coupled with a rise in aluminium production by the People’s Republic of China, the overall effect of declining European aluminium production is likely to be blunted.
