Rio Tinto lowered its 2018 guidance for aluminium by more than 4% on Tuesday October 16, to reflect the impact of the ongoing lock-out at the Becancour smelter in Quebec, Canada.
The company's guidance figure for aluminium production has been revised to 3.4-3.5 million tonnes from 3.5-3.7 million tonnes previously, excluding any potential adjustment from the completion of the sale of the Aluminium Dunkerque smelter, it said in its third-quarter results. The smelter at Becancour (ABI) has been out of action for nine months and is one of Canada's largest smelters with production capacity of 435,000 tonnes per year. Rio Tinto holds a 25% stake and Alcoa the remaining 75%. Because of the situation at ABI, Rio Tinto's aluminium output was 1% lower year on year...