Alcan Inc. announced that it has concluded the previously announced sales transaction of its dross processing facility in Quebec to Scepter Aluminum Company, a privately held recycling company based in the United States.
Under the terms of the transaction, Guillaume-Tremblay Works will continue to process dross produced by Alcan's Quebec smelters.
Scepter, started in 1986, purchased an aluminum dross processing plant in Bicknell, Ind., in 1987. The company also acquired an ingot casting plant in Waverly, Tenn., and opened a Greenfield facility in Seneca Falls, N.Y, which also recycles aluminum, dross, scrap fines and turnings.
Alcan, headquartered in Montreal, also announced that is re-starting 60,000 metric tons of idled aluminum production capacity at its Kitimat smelter in northern British Columbia, bringing the production to 240,000 metric tons. The company cited aluminum market conditions and an improved outlook for water levels in the Nechako Reservoir as reasons for restoring production.
Alcan had reduced its Kitimat smelter production in December 2000 and again last June, from an annual production rate of 277,000 metric tons to 180,000 metric tons, in response to a critical water shortage in the Nechako Reservoir, which supplies water to Alcan's power generating station.
The re-start is expected to begin this August.