A power cut this week at Rio Tinto Alcan's Lynemouth aluminium smelter in northeastern England has knocked out one of the plant's production lines and partially curtailed the other, a company spokesman said on Thursday.
Loss of power in the energy-intensive aluminium smelting process becomes critical beyond 5 to 6 hours as metal solidifies in the pots.
"Because we went as long as we did without power, we're now left with one of our two operating lines completely out of production," said John McCabe, corporate affairs director, Alcan Aluminium UK Limited.
Power initially was lost at the Lynemouth power station, which supplies electricity to the smelter, late on Tuesday evening. It was restored, but only temporarily until around 0800 GMT on Wednesday.
McCabe said the focus on Wednesday had been to stabilise the operation, which has the capacity to produce 175,000 tonnes a year of primary aluminium. Last year it produced 145,000 tonnes.
The company had managed to recover three-quarters of the other pot line, Line 1.
"Essentially our production process is made up of 352 pots. Of that we've got 123 that are operational the others are no longer in operation.
Last month, Rio Tinto, one of the world's top producers of aluminium, said it was set to close the Lynemouth smelter as rising energy costs put pressure on margins.
A consultation process on the closure is in progress and due to continue to the end of February. McCabe said the recent problems would not affect that schedule.
"As far as the future of those pots are concerned we are where we are in the consultation period. No decision has been taken whether or not efforts will be made to restart those pots."
"But certainly at this time we're not actively involved in doing that."
Customers would not be affected by the lost production at the plant.
"We are in contact with our customers and customer demand will be met by the company because the contracts we have are held by the company rather than individual sites. Customers will receive the metal that they demand in the normal way."
The cause of the loss of power was under investigation and yet to be established.
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