Hydro's Alunorte alumina refinery will continue to run at 50% capacity following a federal court ruling, Fastmarkets understands.
The federal court has decided to uphold the decision, previously made by the Para state court, to halt operations of the refinery's DRS2 bauxite residue disposal for environmental reasons. Alunorte has been running at 50% capacity since March following the original decision. A source close to the matter told Fastmarkets that the ruling was a "process involved in moving towards solving the issue," and the alumina market would not be affected in the near term. "We are not surprising at all for the final decision and it won't impact the seaborne price too much according to our internal analysis," a producer said. "We...