Jamaica’s bauxite/alumina industry is pushing to get its production back to maximum levels after Hurricane Ivan, which caused plants to close for several days and damaged transportation infrastructure.

“If things can get back quickly, we can catch up on production or come in just behind (last year’s output),” said Parris Leyow-Ayee, the executive director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), the agency that oversees the industry.

Last year, Jamaica mined 13.4 million tonnes of bauxite, most of it refined into the 3.8 million tonnes of alumina produced in 2003. The industry was hoping to surpass those figures this year, counting substantially on demand for metal in the world’s recovering economies and in robust China.

However, the Alpart alumina refinery in Nain, St Elizabeth will not open until this week, meaning that it has lost more than a week’s production time.

Alpart, now majority owned by Glencore – after its purchase of the 65 per cent share formerly owned by Kaiser Aluminium – still has problems. A section of its loading pier at Port Kaiser in St Elizabeth was damaged and in need of repair, forcing the company to seek temporary shipping arrangements. The pier will be operational this week.

WINDALCO’s refinery at Ewarton, St Catherine resumed operations last week, but its plant at Kirkvine, Manchester still had problems at the weekend with its power generating system and control room.

However, WINDALCO’s conveyor system and ship-loading equipment at Port Esquivel remained functional, giving it the capacity to export without disruption.

Jamalco’s refinery at Hayes, Clarendon received relatively minor damage from the hurricane, but its conveyor belt system and a significant length of the loading pier at Rocky Point was severely damaged, requiring several weeks to repair.

Jamalco will, in the meantime, ship alumina from Port Esquivel.

Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company (KJBC), most of whose operations are on the north coast in Discovery Bay, resumed production two days after the storm.