AlCircle reports that Slovenian aluminum company Talum will shut down its remaining aluminum electrolysis furnaces in April.
The Kidričevo-based company has recently shifted its focus to aluminum processing and other more lucrative activities and is refraining from producing primary aluminum
Due to the sharp increase in energy prices, Talum was required to reduce primary aluminum production to about 20 per cent of its capacity by 2022.
As electricity prices in Europe have increased about tenfold since the beginning of 2021 and primary aluminum production is at the same time very energy-intensive, production became unprofitable at some sites.
Slovenia's aluminum producer is one of the country's top ten exporters, producing 50,000 tons of primary aluminum and more than 110,000 tons of bulk aluminum products annually.
In this context, AlCircle points to the recently published Global Aluminium Industry Outlook 2023 report, which shows that primary aluminum production in Western Europe declined by 12.6% and stood at around 2.9 tons in 2022. As a consequence, many aluminum smelters in Western Europe have recently stopped production due to high energy costs.
