Products/Markets
Rio Tinto Alcan BC’s smelter is the only one in the continental Pacific Northwest to be operating at close to full capacity. The three product lines are sheet ingots, extrusion billets and commercial grade trilok. The shipments of these products can vary depending on customer demands and market conditions.
Product Lines
Sheet ingot has recently become Kitimat’s largest product line due to increasing demand and our world-class quality. Sheet ingots are rectangular in shape and can be cast into pieces as large as 30 metric tonnes. These ingots are then cut into smaller pieces to meet customer requirements. Kitimat Works' sheet ingots are used in many end applications, such as electronics, building panels, lithographic, automotive, heat exchangers and household/medical foils.
Extrusion billets another major product line manufactured in Kitimat are cylindrical in shape and are produced in diameters ranging from 130 to 355 mm. These billets are cast to specified lengths and cut into smaller pieces to meet customer requirements. Billets are processed into parts and used in architectural, structural and automotive markets.
Commercial Grade Trilock is the third major product line manufactured in 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 recasted 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 Rio Tinto Alcan BC’s production processes and facilities. On-site analytical and metallographic laboratories heighten the operation’s ability to meet increasingly precise customer specifications.
Markets
Capitalizing on its advantageous geographic position, Rio Tinto Alcan BC sells its products into various Pacific Rim markets. Our aluminum ingots are shipped primarily to customers in Canada, USA, Japan, South Korea and China.
Power Sales
Rio Tinto 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 Rio Tinto Alcan BC's operations, and has helped avoid the need for employment reductions during the market downturns that are an unavoidable feature of the aluminum industry.
