Slovalco a.s.
operating- Capacity
- 175 kt/yrnominalna
- Status
- electrolysis shut down 2022–2023; start-up of stage I, 75 kt, from H2 2026 (EC approval of compensation pending); casthouse and remelting operating
Electrolysis shut down in September 2022 because of energy costs and the absence of indirect cost compensation. On 1 July 2026 Hydro announced the restart of 75 kt of capacity after an agreement with the Slovak government on compensation – the first restoration of shut-down smelting capacity in the Union in four years. The foundry and scrap processing operated throughout the electrolysis shutdown. Address: Priemyselná 14, 965 48 Žiar nad Hronom. Status in 2026: electrolysis (226 pots, prebake line) was shut down – production was curtailed in summer 2022, the last pots were switched off at the beginning of 2023, and the decision affected 300 jobs. The plant was NOT closed: Hydro declared that “the casthouse at Slovalco will continue recycling operations, serving customers in the region with 75 kt of processed aluminium per year”. The 2025 report confirms the operation of the remelting centre producing anodes and extrusion billets, but signals a shortage of aluminium scrap, falling demand and no orders for ingots from remelting of process scrap. The company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Slovak government on assessing a possible restart of electrolysis – hence the status “idle”, not “closed”. Coordinates from geocoding of Priemyselná street; street-level accuracy within the industrial complex of the former ZSNP. Electrolysis in Žiar nad Hronom was shut down in 2022 as a result of energy prices, which cut the plant off from its own liquid metal. The company states that in February 2026 it signed a memorandum with the Slovak government opening an assessment of the possibility of restarting the shut-down primary production. The plant presents itself as one of the most energy-efficient primary aluminium producers in Europe.
Verified at source: