Products and Markets

Alcan B.C.’s smelter is the only one in the continental Pacific Northwest to be operating at close to full capacity. There are three product lines, and the large majority of Kitimat’s production (typically more than 95 per cent) consists of value-added products.

Product Lines
Sheet ingot has recently become Kitimat’s largest product line, in response to strong market demand. Sheet ingots are rectangular in shape and range in size from six to 25 tonnes. They are used in diverse industrial, automotive and photographic applications, and to produce every-day consumer items such as aluminum foil and beverage cans.

Billet ingot accounts for most of the rest of Alcan B.C.’s production. Circular in shape, billet ingots range in diameter from 130 to 508 centimetres and are cut to customer-specified lengths. Billet ingot is used primarily in architectural and structural applications, and to produce such items as door and window frames.

Remelt or trilock ingots make up a small but still significant proportion of production at Kitimat. These 23-kilogram ingots lock together for ease of transportation and storage. Unlike value-added sheet and billet ingots – to which alloys are added to produce specified characteristics – trilock ingots consist of pure aluminum. After being remelted and recast by customers they are suitable for the full range of aluminum end-uses.

Careful quality control and a capacity for extensive product customization are hallmarks of Alcan B.C.’s production processes and facilities. On-site analytical laboratories heighten the operation’s ability to meet increasingly precise customer specifications.

Markets
Capitalizing on its advantageous geographic position, Alcan B.C. sells its products into various Pacific Rim markets – Japan, South Korea and the United States being the most important. Other customers are in Canada and various southeast Asian markets.

Power Sales
Alcan’s most important business in B.C. has been, is, and will remain aluminum production. The operation also realizes some revenue – less than 10 per cent of the total in recent years – from power sales. This has been an ongoing practice since the 1950s. The power is sold to B.C.’s public electrical utility, for use in northern B.C.

Revenue from this secondary product line has played an important role in stabilizing Alcan’s B.C. operations, and has helped avoid the need for employment reductions during the market downturns that are an unavoidable feature of the aluminum industry.