Aluminum Smelter Heading Back To Full Capacity

Century Aluminum of Ravenswood has begun restoring production on one of its pot lines just seven weeks after it was shut down. The line was shut down earlier this summer during contract negotiations between the company and the United Steelworkers, which approved a new contract in early August. The pot line equals approximately 25 percent of the plant’s production. When the line is back in operation in late October, the aluminum smelting plant back will be back to full production.

Mason County Alloys Plant Back In Operation

A Ukraine-based company is about to resume production at an alloys plant in Mason County, a year after fire knocked it out of service. Felman Production has hired 135 people to rebuild the plant and electric arc furnaces, which were damaged in the October fire. Gov. Joe Manchin said Tuesday that the company plans to employ 220 people by the end of 2007. The furnace was restarted in early September and the plant is expected to begin shipments to customers by the end of the month. The New Haven-area plant, which produces ferroalloys used to make steel, is Felman’s first U.S. operation. Felman, a subsidiary of the Privat Group, bought the former Highlander Alloys plant for about $20 million in January.

Coal Conversion Plan To Be Developed

Gov. Joe Manchin III has announced that leading industry consultants will develop a plan and conceptual design for a coal-to-liquids manufacturing facility in West Virginia. The industry-funded plan will support the governor’s Coal Conversion Initiative, a public/private partnership to make West Virginia a leader in alternative uses for coal. “This plan will focus on the technical elements and basis for moving forward with a coal conversion facility in West Virginia,” Manchin said. “The plan will provide a foundation for the private sector to advance development of West Virginia’s first coal-to-liquids manufacturing facility,” the governor said.

The plan is sponsored by American Electric Power subsidiary Appalachian Power Co., as well as by Energy Village, a non-profit organization that promotes energy-focused economic development. The plan will be developed by American Electric Power Service Corporation, with key inputs provided by Worley Parsons, GE Energy and CONSOL Energy. Worley Parsons is a global engineering and consulting firm. GE Energy, a division of the General Electric Company, is a provider of coal gasification and related coal conversion and power generation technologies. CONSOL Energy is the largest U.S. producer of coal from underground mines.

Double-Stack Rail Project Gets Funding

The States of Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia, Norfolk Southern Corporation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) at the U.S. Department of Transportation have announced that the three states and Norfolk Southern’s operating subsidiary, Norfolk Southern Railway Company, have entered into Memoranda of Agreement with FHWA that govern the release of $95 million in federal funding for the Heartland Corridor rail double-stack clearance project.

The Heartland Corridor will enable double-stacked international maritime and domestic containers to be transported by rail between the Hampton Roads region of Virginia and locations in the Midwest by raising tunnel clearances and modifying other overhead obstructions in western Virginia, West Virginia, and through to Columbus, Ohio.

The Heartland Corridor Project is a public-private partnership whose purpose is to expand capacity, improve service consistency and reduce customer availability times by up to one day for intermodal traffic between the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, providing opportunities for economic development in all three affected states, as well as benefits to the nation overall. The parties expect the clearance construction to be completed by the end of 2009.