MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Rio Tinto's <RIO.AX> <RIO.L> majority-owned aluminium smelter in New Zealand is expanding output after securing a new energy deal, the plant said this week, as a recovery in the price of the metal boosts interest among global producers.
New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS), located at Tiwai Point on the southern tip of country's South Island, said on Tuesday it will restart a fourth potline that was mothballed six years ago after it secured a 50 megawatt contract for green energy from utility Meridian Energy. A potline is a receptacle that uses electricity to convert alumina into molten aluminium.
After years of oversupply forced higher-cost aluminium producers to shut down, a creeping shortage in markets outside China has encouraged some to restart. Global aluminium prices <CMAL3> climbed 35 percent last year.
The potline restart at Tiwai Point will take six months and will add around 85 tonnes to daily production, lifting total output by 9 percent, NZAS said.
NZAS is 79.36 per cent-owned by Rio Tinto's Pacific Aluminium, and 20.64 per cent-owned by Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Company <4005.T>
It produces primary aluminium in the form of ingot, billet and rolling block. Most of the plant's alumina is supplied from Rio's Yarwun and Queensland Alumina refineries in Australia. Around 90 per cent of the aluminium produced is exported.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
