Alcoa sees up to $110 million loss as Spain aluminium smelter restart delayed to mid-2026

July 14 (Reuters) - Alcoa Corp AA.N said on Monday it expects to complete the restart of its San Ciprian aluminium smelter in Spain by mid-2026 and anticipates up to $110 million in losses due to the delay.

Production at the plant was curtailed in 2021 due to high power prices. It has been in the process of being restarted but that was delayed after Spain was hit by a nationwide power blackout on April 28, which disrupted both the smelter and an adjacent refinery.

Since March, the smelter has been operated by a joint venture between Alcoa and Ignis Equity Holdings.

Alcoa said it now expects to record a net loss of $90 million to $110 million in 2025, tied to the smelter. This includes pre-tax and non-controlling interest impacts, translating to a loss of $0.35 to $0.42 per share.

Associated cash used in operations next year is projected to total between $110 million and $130 million.

The companies delayed restart efforts pending further assurances from the Spanish government regarding the cause of the outage and the reliability of the national power grid.

According to the company's website, the San Ciprian site includes an alumina plant with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year, supplying Alcoa and other producers, as well as external customers in non-metallurgical sectors such as ceramics, chemicals and water purification. The adjacent primary aluminium smelter has an annual capacity of 228,000 tonnes.