Wednesday 12 November 2008
Alcoa slashes aluminium production, shelves expansion
ALCOA has announced it has cut its metal production and postponed the expansion of its Wagerup refinery, as the global market experiences weakening demand and lower prices for aluminium.
The expansion of the Western Australian refinery would have given it a two million tonne production boost, and costed between $4.5b and $6b.
Alcoa says it will be looking at the project again when the market conditions are better.
Overall, the company will cut its aluminium production by 350,000t a year. This comes after an earlier cut of 265,000t a year.
The Australian branch says the total cut of 15% of the global company’s output will not affect domestic production.
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