Speira to curtail 50% of aluminium smelter production at Rheinwerk plant; cites high energy costs

Global aluminium rolling and recycling company Speira will curtail 50% of the current smelter production at its Rheinwerk plant until further notice citing rising energy prices, the company announced on Wednesday, September 7

The curtailment will begin from October 2022 and means that output from the smelter will be reduced to 70,000 tonnes per year.

“We and many other European aluminium smelters are facing similar challenges. Energy prices have gone too high in the last months, and we don’t foresee a change in that trend in the near future,” Einar Glomnes, chief executive officer at Speira, said on Wednesday. “This development requires us to curtail 50% of our smelter production until further notice to sustain value for Speira”

The curtailment process is expected to be completed in November, and curtailed liquid production will be replaced by external metal supplies, the company added.

Speira operates seven manufacturing facilities in Germany and Norway, is a leading producer and recycler of advanced rolled aluminium products, and serves the automotive, packaging, printing, engineering, and building and construction industries.

This announcement is the most recent in a line of energy-related curtailments announced over recent weeks across the aluminium supply chain as European energy prices continue to soar.

Aluminium and value added product (VAP) premiums have been moving lower over recent weeks, due to pressure from increasingly bearish macro-economic sentiment, good availability of imported units and weak spot demand.

Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium P1020A premium, in-whs dp Rotterdam at $430-480 per tonne on Tuesday September 6, down from $450-500 per tonne one week earlier and falling from its recent record highs of $600-630 per tonne in May.

Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium 6063 extrusion billet premium, ddp North Germany (Ruhr region) at $1,050-1,100 per tonne on Friday September 2, falling from $1,100-1,150 per tonne the previous week and down by 11% from $1,170-1,250 per tonne at the beginning of August.

What to read next
Fastmarkets has launched MB-AL-0424 Aluminium P1020A premium, fob Indonesia, $/tonne on July 9 due to an expected increase in Indonesia-origin aluminium exports. MB-AL-0424 Aluminium P1020A premium, fob Indonesia, $/tonneQuality: P1020A or 99.7 % Minimum Al purity (Si 0.10% max, Fe 0.20% max) in line with LME specifications. Ingot, T-bar, sowQuantity: Min 500 tonnesLocation: FOB IndonesiaTiming: […]
To increase the transparency of our methodology, Fastmarkets clarifies that the quotation period of the MHP nickel payable indicator is the month of delivery, or the month M. Any data points Fastmarkets received otherwise will be normalized to the M month based on the monthly spreads of the prevailing exchange-traded Class-1 nickel reference price, or […]
'Probably miscalculated’ assumptions at Kakula mine force Ivanhoe to overhaul entire Kamoa-Kakula complex, explains CEO Marna Cloete.
Tariff concerns and opaque import regulations dominated discussions among aluminium and copper scrap market participants at the 2025 ASEAN Recycling Metals International Conference held in Thailand on June 18-20.
The automotive industry's embrace of the pioneering steelmaking technology of tailored welded blanks to make hot stamped door rings has reached a break-out point with annual output volumes expected to double over the next five years
Fastmarkets’ 2025 outlook for key raw materials and ingredients used in the production and distribution of fast-moving consumer goods.