Alcoa to Resume San Ciprian Smelter Restart Process

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Alcoa Corporation and IGNIS Equity Holdings, SL, its joint venture partner, declared their intention to restart the San Ciprian smelter in Spain. The smelter restart is anticipated to be finished by the middle of 2026, according to the revised timeline.

On April 28, 2025, there was a massive power outage throughout Spain that affected the San Ciprian smelting complex's operations. Both the smelting and refinery activities at San Ciprian were impacted. This consequently affected the smelter's capacity to restart completely and on schedule. 

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After evaluating the damage caused by the power loss, the joint venture's management made the decision to put the restart process on hold until it received definitive information from the Spanish government regarding the source of the outage and a guarantee that it wouldn't happen again.

"The joint venture representatives met with national and regional government representatives and received assurances that they will continue to promote measures to provide reliable and competitive energy," said Rob Bear, Vice President, Spain for Alcoa. According to him, they have also looked over the government's assessment on the events leading up to the power outage as well as the planned investments and actions meant to increase system resilience.