[ferro-alloys.com]Union employees at Century Aluminum's 218,000 mt/year Sebree smelter in western Kentucky have ratified a new five-year labor agreement with the Chicago-based company, a union official said Tuesday.

The United Steelworkers union official, who asked not to be identified, said the balloting that ended late last week was close, but declined to release any vote totals. Wages and health care were among the major issues during negotiations.

"Well, we got one," he said about the new contract that runs through mid-September 2023 at the Webster County plant.

Century officials did not respond to a Tuesday email seeking comment on the new contract that covers roughly 500 union workers. Andy Thompson, the local union president, also was unavailable for comment.

Sebree is arguably Century's best operating smelter and the union official indicated the company might have an announcement soon regarding production.

Several years ago, the company boosted Sebree's production capacity from about 205,000 mt/year to 218,000 mt/year.

The union official also said a potline at Sebree idled by a May 29 power outage has returned to full operation. Sebree is a three-potline operation.

The company has said it expected to lose less than 18,000 mt of production as a result of the outage. Each of Sebree's three potlines is rated at roughly 70,000 mt/year and had been running at full capacity prior to the late May incident.

Century is spending about $75 million to rebuild three potlines at its 252,000/st smelter in Hawesville, Kentucky. The company also operates the 224,000 mt/year Mt. Holly smelter in South Carolina and 270,000 mt/year Grundartangi smelter in Iceland.

• [Editor:王可]