Alcoa Inc. took additional steps to cut its smelting and refining capacity as it struggles with lower aluminum prices.
Advertisement
Alcoa plans to idle its Intalco Works smelter in Ferndale, Washington, and Wenatchee Works in Malaga, Washington, as well as the Massena West smelter in Massena, New York, cutting the company’s smelting capacity by 503,000 tonnes, the company said.
The company says the partial shutdown is the result of historically low aluminum prices. The refinery now has a maximum capacity of 2.3 million tonnes annually, according to the company’s website. The…
The group has been aggressively reshaping its upstream portfolio as part of a strategy to position itself as a low-priced global leader in alumina and aluminium production.
Alcoa has two plants in Massena known as Massena East and Massena West. The company says it won’t modernize the shuttered Alcoa East and will shut down the smelting operation at Alcoa West.
Alcoa will continue to employ 220 workers at its casthouse and its forgings and extrusions facility in Massena.
“Across the globe, we have been taking measures to curtail smelting and refining capacity that is not competitive to improve our cost profile”, says Roy Harvey, executive vice president and president, global primary products. The USA has gone in the opposite direction: from 2.5 million tons in 2005 to 1.6 million in 2015, it said.
Advertisement
“You’ve seen a fair clip of closures in the USA, that is just unfortunate, but a development that’s very hard to change”, said Michael Widmer, head of metal markets research at Bank of America in London. The company expects restructuring-related charges in the fourth quarter to be between $160 million and $180 million after tax, or 12 cents to 14 cents a share, of which approximately 30% would be non-cash, Alcoa said.
