Century's Iceland aluminium smelter to return sooner than expected

Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. aluminium producer Century Aluminum CENX.O said on Thursday that repairs would allow the shuttered capacity at its Grundartangi smelter in Iceland to restart by the end of April, around six months sooner than previously guided.

The 320,000 metric ton per year plant had to cut production by two-thirds in late October due to electrical equipment failure, pushing up European aluminium premiums EPDc1, which are currently at a one-year high of $356 a ton.

Century said in November it would take 11-12 months for replacement transformers to be manufactured, shipped and installed.

"The good news here is that we now expect we will be able to repair some of the damaged transformers and begin to restart Line 2 at the end of April, about six months sooner than originally anticipated," Century CEO Jesse Gary said on a fourth-quarter earnings call.

"We still plan to install the new replacement transformers once they are completed, but we are confident that the repaired transformers will allow us to return the line to close to full production in the interim," Gary said, adding that the smelter would be back near full production by the end of July.

The replacements are not expected to arrive until the fourth quarter due to high demand for transformers from data centres, the CEO said.

Century, which is building the first new U.S. aluminium smelter since 1980 alongside Emirates Global Aluminium in Oklahoma, this month sold its idled Hawesville smelting site in Kentucky to data centre operator TeraWulf WULF.O.

Century's fourth-quarter aluminium shipments fell 14% from the third quarter due to the Iceland outage. It expects annual shipments to drop by only 2.6% in 2026 to 630,000 tons, with volumes from its Mt. Holly project in South Carolina set to rise with the restart of 50,000 tons of capacity there in April.