BHP smelters in South Africa hit by power reductions

South Africa's current chronic tight power market forced local supplier Eskom to reduce supplies yesterday to BHP Billiton's two smelters at Richards Bay—the 670,000tpy Hillside and the 180,000tpy Bayside smelters. There is the possibility for more load shedding by Eskom later this week. It's unclear at this stage whether the Mozal smelter in Mozambique has been affected, although it is also supplied by Eskom. Tight power supply in South Africa has been an issue for much of this year, although so far the impact on aluminium production has been minimal.