Interview: an Investment That Makes Us Very Happy
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06 Interview Aluminerie Alouette “An investment that makes us very happy.” AMAG CFO, Gerald Mayer, on the topic of the Alouette smelter in Canada, its ecological qualities and why he personally very much likes the location. What is special about the Alouette to production are the object of intensive smelter? consideration. We employ an in-house The Alouette (French for lark) smelter waste gas analysis system and the result- is the largest facility of its type in North ing data is then integrated into the optimi- America and is one of the world’s most zation process. efficient and modern industrial plants. At present, a workforce of around 1,000 Which brings us to an important produces 575,000 t of primary alumini- topic. How is the smelter to be evalu- um annually at the location in Sept Iles, ated from an ecological perspective? Quebec. Naturally enough, smelters require very large amounts of electricity. For example, The Sept Iles location is not so easy Alouette has a connected load of 895 MW to find on the map. It is 670 km away and annual consumption of 7 TWh, which from Québec and 900 km from Mon- corresponds with Vienna’s power require- treal. Therefore, why was it chosen? ment for six months. Alouette obtains its The location was selected primarily due electrical energy from highly efficient hy- to the availability of hydropower and the dropower plants in the local area. Our sup- further advantage of a deepwater port on plier, Hydro Quebec, operates hydropower the plant site. Production commenced in plants in the vicinity of Sept Iles with cur- June 1992 and in spring 2003 a second rent output of around 38 GW and addi- enlargement phase commenced, which tional hydropower capacity is already in was successfully concluded in September the planning phase, which means that ba- Michel Gagnon, Vice-President Finance and Administration, Alouette (left) and Gerald Ma- 2005. sically sufficient “clean” energy will also be yer, CFO, AMAG available for future expansion schemes. At What are the technical highlights in a time of growing environmental aware- AMAG has had a 20 per cent holding Sept Iles? ness, this is of increasing importance, in the Alouette smelter in Canada The smelter uses 594 Pechiney AP-30 especially as many of the smelters that since 1997. What role does this in- technology cells and specific DC power are currently undergoing construction are vestment play within the group? consumption is extremely low at around based on fossil fuel energy generation and As a result of this holding, we have direct 12,800 kWh / t of primary aluminium pro- therefore have a poor CO 2 balance, some- access to 20 per cent of current plant duced. thing that in particular applies to projects output, or 115,000 t/y, which provides in the Arab World. us with a secure raw material basis. In A further 18 fully-fledged electrolysis cells turn, this means that for our customers are available for the further development Transport routes are of decisive we constitute a stable partner within the of production technology at minimum risk. importance to any environmental framework of long-term business rela- This testing facility serves the optimiza- balance. How are raw materials tionships. Moreover, during the difficult tion of both anode and cathode linings, supplied to Sept Isles and how is the months of 2009, the investment had a and operational parameters. For exam- aluminium delivered to the cus- steadying influence and made a size- ple, work is continuing at present on an tomer? able contribution to AMAG’s successful increase in electrical current strength and The delivery and dispatch of raw materi- result. in addition, environmental issues relating als and goods at Alouette involves mini- Interview 07 Hydro Alumi- nium, Norway AMAG 20% 20% Société générale de financement du Québec, Canada 13% Rio Tinto Marubeni, Alcan, Canada Japan 7% 40% Aluminerie Alouette/Canada – Shareholding ratio mum environmental impact. Alumina from and recently the so-called “Ouf!” proactive the Atlantic area and South America, and health & safety tool was introduced, which petrol coke from the Gulf of Mexico are provides every employee with an oppor- supplied directly using Panamex vessels. tunity to prevent future accidents through Pitch is transported from Rotterdam and the direct communication of identified dan- the return transport of primary metal to gers, the corresponding corrective meas- Europe takes place by means of the spe- ures and possible solutions. cial ship, “Jaeger Arrow”. In this connec- tion, it is also interesting to note that our In closing, could you also give us “Alouette Spirit”, a ferry with a capacity of an insight into Alouette’s expansion 11,000 t, is employed for the transport of plans? primary metal via the St. Lawrence wa- Together with our partners, we are cur- terway to the Great Lakes, which saves rently planning the expansion phase III, roughly 15,000 truckloads annually. Fur- which will involve an increase in production thermore, we also have the possibility of to 900,000 t. The forecasts concerning direct loading onto the railways via a roll- primary aluminium consumption are thor- on/roll-off ferry. oughly positive and for example, the CRU market research institute anticipates vol- It is well-known that Canadian envi- ume growth of around 40 per cent in the ronmental legislation is very strict. coming five years and by 2025 demand Does this offer advantages to indus- could double. Against this background and trial companies? in view of the availability of “clean” electric- Definitely, because as a result of perma- ity from hydropower, intensive work is un- nent monitoring and continual improve- der way on the preparation of the required ments, we are able to set a very high envi- documentation for approval. ronmental standard. Accordingly, Alouette constitutes a global benchmark with regard Do you have any personal remarks to to the ecological production of aluminium. make about Alouette? Alouette is a financially attractive invest- Alouette not only stands out due ment, which above all proved to be a sta- to its responsible approach to the bilizing factor for AMAG during the 2009 environment, but also the excellent crisis. Alouette also fulfils increasingly working conditions for the workforce. stringent ecological requirements and is Could you tell us about some of a benchmark with regard to energy and these? cost efficiency. Aluminium produced on an Work safety tops the list of priorities. Since ecologically favourable basis at Alouette is the smelter started operations, the total an important part of our AMAG Green Alu recordable injury frequency rate has been Products. And put simply, Alouette is an considerably reduced and has now stabi- investment that makes us very happy. lized at around one accident per 200,000 working hours. This is a top branch figure Thank you for the interview. AluReport.