Ann: Investor Presentation, page-67

Aluminum smelting is very different to producing Manganese and silicon alloys.
The OM Sarawak hasn't had major maintenance since original construction, the furnaces were well overdue for major maintenance. Its unfortunate that its all needed to be done in such a short period of time.
I do think that OM Holdings management haven't looked at capital management in an objective light. The conversion of the 2 x FeSi furnaces has cost more in downtime and conversion than the cost of building two new furnaces. Its already two years since those 2 furnaces have made money. True they've had labour problems but the cost in production loss of 2 FeSi furnaces at a production rate of 65 tonnes/day/furnace has cost 95,000 tonnes in lost production and at US$1,500 tonne = US$140 million in lost sales and maybe US$40 million lost profit. If those furnaces had been operating when the FeSi price was at US$4,000 /tonne then it would've been a bonanza.
I have queried the commonsense of conversion vs building more furnaces which I my opinion would've produced a more profitable solution and long term diversification.