CFAC to restart potline in early 2007
By NANCY KIMBALL
The Daily Inter Lake
Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. confirmed Tuesday that the plant expects to restart the second of its five potlines after the first of the year.
CFAC manager of external affairs Haley Beaudry said the restart is likely in the first three months of 2007.
"We're preparing to hopefully restart some of our capacity," Beaudry said.
Beaudry said commodities market prices both for finished aluminum and the unprocessed alumina that CFAC buys to produce that aluminum are working in the plant's favor right now.
The market for aluminum has improved while the price of aluminum oxide, or alumina, has plummeted in recent years.
"The price of alumina went way up at one time," Beaudry said. "It went up to $600 a ton, but it's gone back down now that Australia's production capacity is up. Now it's under $300."
The raw ore is an open commodities-market purchase, but Beaudry said CFAC's alumina probably will come from Jamaica or Asia.
He would not say how much aluminum the second potline is expected to produce, but said the single line now in operation at the plant produces about 35,000 tons a year.
The plant held a job fair on Nov. 22, testing applicants for as many as 100 laborers and another 20 or 30 millwrights and electricians that will be needed when Columbia Falls Aluminum expands production.
The pre-Thanksgiving announcement prompted scores of former plant workers and new applicants to flock to the Montana Job Service in Kalispell to undergo computerized skills testing. The jobs reportedly pay around $19 an hour for laborers and $23 to $24 an hour for craftsmen.
Beaudry said that, because applications still are being evaluated, it is too early to predict how many actually will be hired and whether they will be workers who were laid off from the plant earlier.
Columbia Falls Aluminum currently operates one potline and employs about 150 people. The plant has been running the single potline - 20 percent of its capacity - since March 2003.
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com