US producer Alcoa's aluminium output increased on the year in April-June despite the months-long closure of its San Ciprián aluminium smelter in Spain. But its bauxite and alumina output fell in the quarter.
Aluminium
Alcoa smelted 572,000t of aluminium in April-June, up by 5.3pc on the year, the company said in a quarterly report on 17 July. It has maintained its 2025 aluminium production guidance at 2.3mn-2.5mn t, which it set in January.
The increase came from the continued ramp-up of its 447,000 t/yr Alumar smelter in Brazil. It operates the smelter with Australian producer South32. The two companies reopened the aluminium smelter in 2024 after a nine-year production halt.
Alcoa's Alumar ramp-up offset production declines from the shutdown of its San Ciprián aluminium smelter in Spain. The company initially paused production at the 228,000 t/yr plant in December 2021. It began a phased restart in early 2024, but paused it in late-April 2025 because of a major power outage. Alcoa will fully restart the plant by mid-2026 with the support of energy solutions provider Ignis Equity Holdings.
Alcoa shipped 581,000t of produced aluminium in April-June, as well as 53,000t of third-party aluminium, pushing down its total shipments by 6.5pc on the year (see table). The company also reduced its 2025 aluminium shipment guidance to 2.5mn-2.6mn t from its April forecast of 2.6mn-2.8mn t because of the San Ciprián shutdown.
Alcoa, like many other global aluminium producers, faced tariff pressures in April-June. The company redirected some Canadian-produced aluminium away from the US over the quarter, it told investors. Alcoa expects tariffs to cost $90mn in July-September.
US tariffs similarly cost UK-Australian producer Rio Tinto in April-June. It paid $712/t of aluminium shipped to the US over the quarter, the company told investors on 16 July.
Bauxite and alumina
Alcoa produced 9.3mn t of bauxite and 2.4mn t of alumina in April-June, down by 2.1pc and by 7.4pc on the year respectively. It shut its 2.2mn t/yr Kwinana alumina refinery in late 2024, reducing its production capacity.
The company has maintained its 2025 calendar year alumina production guidance at 9.5mn-9.7mn t, unchanged from April.
It also cut its produced alumina shipments in the quarter to 2.4mn t, down from 2.6mn t a year earlier, but this was supplemented by third-party shipments. The company maintained its 2025 alumina shipment guidance at 13.1mn-13.3mn t.
Alcoa will ship more alumina than it produces in 2025 because it plans to use third-party sales as a substitute for Kwinana production to meet existing shipment obligations.
| Alcoa quarterly report | mn t | |||||
| Apr-Jun '25 | Apr-Jun '24 | y-o-y Change (%) | Jan-Jun '25 | Jan-Jun '24 | YTD Change (%) | |
| Production | ||||||
| Bauxite | 9.3 | 9.5 | -2.1 | 18.8 | 19.6 | -4.1 |
| Alumina | 2.4 | 2.5 | -7.4 | 4.7 | 5.2 | -9.7 |
| Aluminium | 0.6 | 0.5 | 5.3 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 4.7 |
| Shipments | ||||||
| Alumina (produced) | 2.4 | 2.6 | -8.1 | 4.7 | 5.2 | -9.9 |
| Alumina shipments (other) | 3.3 | 3.3 | -0.2 | 6.5 | 6.6 | -2.3 |
| Aluminium (produced) | 0.6 | 0.6 | -2.4 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Aluminium (other) | 0.05 | 0.1 | -36.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 | -43.4 |
| — Alcoa | ||||||
