Alcoa Adjusting Operations at Two Sites

Alcoa Inc. announced plans to indefinitely postpone the restart of one line and gradually restart two lines at another facility. The goal of this move is to balancfe the company’s primary metal output.

The company announced it would shelve the planned restart of line 1 at its Warrick County, Ind., facility. The line has a capacity of 41,000 metric tons per year.

Additionally, Alcoa said it will gradually restart two lines of idle capacity at its Ferndale, Wash., smelter. The restart will result in 95,000 metric tons per year of production this year.

The Warrick facility has been slowing restarting capacity since a power outage halted production this past December. It is currently operating at 85 percent of its 310,000 metric tons per year capacity. Initially, it was expected that the smelter would return to full capacity this quarter.

The Ferndale smelter, idled since last May, was taken as part of an agreement with the Bonneville Power Administration to provide power to the agency to meet the energy needs of the region.