A sale of Windalco by UC Rusal would transfer control of one of only two alumina refineries operating in Jamaica, at a time when the state’s position in the sector rests largely on a minority stake in the other and on plans for a third that remains closed.

Bloomberg reported on September 22 that Rusal had begun sounding out buyers for Windalco and its Guyana bauxite business, though the process was described as early and a deal may not happen. Mining Minister Floyd Green told the Jamaica Observer the Government had no notice of any sale and would query Rusal’s parent company.

The capacity map explains why the question matters. Jamalco in Clarendon, owned 55 per cent by US-based Century Aluminium and 45 per cent by the Government’s Clarendon Alumina Production (CAP), has a design capacity of about 1.4 million tonnes a year. Windalco’s Ewarton refinery in St Catherine is rated at roughly 650,000 tonnes, according to Rusal’s 2010 restart announcement. Of those figures, Ewarton accounts for nearly a third of the refining capacity now operating on the island.

The rest of the installed base is idle. Windalco’s Kirkvine plant in Manchester has been mothballed since 2009. Alpart at Nain, St Elizabeth, the largest refinery at 1.65 million tonnes, has been shut since 2019. Chinese state-owned JISCO has committed about US$490 million to a first phase targeting one million tonnes a year, due for completion by June 2027, Green told Parliament in July.

That leaves the state with a direct seat at only one operating refinery, and it has required public funding at times to hold it. The Auditor General reported that CAP needed US$27 million in Government loans in fiscal 2016/17 to clear arrears to its joint venture partner. 

Concentrated foreign control is not new. After Rusal’s 2007 merger with Glencore’s alumina assets and its later purchase of Norsk Hydro’s Alpart stake, the company controlled about 65 per cent of the island’s alumina production. The Government sold its final 7 per cent of Windalco to Rusal in 2014 for US$11 million, credited against debt it owed the company.

The Government’s influence over any sale would run through mining leases, bauxite reserves and the terms of Windalco’s operating agreements. Whether those agreements give the state a consent right or a right of first refusal on a change of control has not been made public. Minister Green has referred to lease access before: responding to questions in July about Alpart’s missed reopening dates, he noted that other companies were interested in bauxite leases.

Rusal is not under sanctions, but restrictions on Russian metals since the invasion of Ukraine have pushed it to reorganise its raw material supply, and it has cut capital spending.  Windalco contributes less than 6 per cent of its alumina output.

A Windalco sale process running alongside JISCO’s Alpart rebuild would leave two of the island’s three refining businesses in transition before mid-2027. The Government has not said when it expects Rusal’s reply.