NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - Alcoa (AA) announced that it is taking decisive action to curtail uncompetitive smelting and refining capacity, by reducing aluminum smelting capacity by 503,000 metric tons and alumina refining capacity by 1.2 million metric tons.
Alcoa expects these reductions to further improve the cost position of the Upstream business and ensure competitiveness in a lower pricing environment, including a 30 percent drop in the Midwest transaction aluminum price year-to-date.
In its aluminum business, Alcoa plans to idle the Intalco and Wenatchee primary aluminum smelters in Washington State, and the Massena West smelter in New York. The company will not modernize the New York Massena East smelter and will permanently close the facility; potlines at Massena East have been closed since March 2014. The casthouses at Intalco and Massena West, which produce value-add shaped products, will continue to operate. The Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions facility in Massena is unaffected.
In its alumina business, Alcoa plans to partially curtail refining capacity at its Pt. Comfort, Texas facility by about 1.2 million metric tons.
Alcoa expects to begin the curtailments in the fourth quarter of 2015 and to complete them by the end of the first quarter of 2016. Alcoa said it would have closed, divested or curtailed 45 percent of total smelting operating capacity since 2007, once these actions are complete.
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