Alcoa to permanently close NY smelter's remaining potlines

The aluminum company Alcoa, based in Pittsburgh, has announced plans to permanently close the remaining two potlines at its Massena East, N.Y., smelter by the first quarter of 2014. The company says the potlines are not competitive in the market.

Alcoa had permanently closed the first of the three potlines at the facility in August 2013.

Alcoa’s Massena West facility will continue to operate.

Alcoa says the potline closings will reduce the company’s smelter capacity by 84,000 metric tons.

Including the closure of the two potlines at Massena East, Alcoa has announced closures or curtailments representing 361,000 metric tons of the 460,000 metric tons placed under review in May 2013.

Once the Massena East potline closure is complete, Alcoa says it will have total smelting operating capacity of 3.95 million metric tons, with about 655,000 metric tons of capacity idle.