Corus to sell German, Dutch aluminium plants Click to enlarge photo By Michael Hogan
BERLIN (Reuters) - Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, owned by India's Tata Steel, will put its primary aluminium smelters in Germany and the Netherlands up for sale after electricity contracts have been agreed for the plants, Corus CEO Philippe Varin said on Tuesday.
Electricity supply contracts were currently underway for the plants in both countries, Varin said.
"When these contracts are in place our goal is to find a strategic future for this business, the primary aluminium production, in an environment which is more supportive of the aluminium business outside of Corus," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the IISI global steel industry conference in Berlin.
Asked if that meant they would be put up for sale, he said: "yes."
The smelters in Delfzijl in the Netherlands and Voerde in Germany have combined capacity to produce around 250,000 tonnes of primary aluminium annually and, including secondary production from scrap, have total output of more than 300,000 tonnes of aluminium a year.
India's Tata Steel won a bidding battle in January 2007 to buy Corus.
As Tata is focused on steel, industry analysts have expected the primary aluminium plants to be sold.
In October 2005, Corus reached a new power supply agreement for its Voerde aluminium plant in Germany, saving the works from closure.
Asked on Tuesday whether this contract meant the power supplies of the Voerde plant were secure, Varin said: "We now have some CO2 issues on this contract that we did not have before."
This meant both plants had electricity supply issues which needed to be solved, he said.
He could not say whether he expected the power supply contracts to be settled this year.
High power costs have compelled the closure of two German aluminium plants in the last two years, HAW in Hamburg and Norsk Hydro's plant in Stade. But HAW has since reopened.
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