Century-Old Bond for Aluminum Smelters and Utilities Falls Apart
- Metal processors close plants, search for cheaper electricity
- Loss of big users hurting utilities as demand, prices decline
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The business of making aluminum in the U.S. is collapsing -- and no other industry has watched the demise as closely as the one that supplies the power used to create molten metal in giant pots.
For more than a century, America’s aluminum processors and the electricity generators grew together. Utilities sought out smelters that, in some cases, became their largest consumers. And the metal makers counted on utilities to supply an energy source that accounts for as much as a third of their costs.