Alunorte power outages present supply problems

A force majeure notice has been issued by Norsk Hydro following power outages at its Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil.

Two power outages - on May 18th and June 2nd - have caused problems for Hydro and disrupted alumina production at the plant.

According to Hydro, it is not possible at present to determine or estimate whether or how deliveries to customers will be affected.

While Hydro has a team of experts on-site attempting to stabilise and increase production, Q2 production will be lower than Q1.

The Alunorte plant has a nameplate capacity of 6.3Mt/year and is claimed to be the world's largest alumina refinery.