Alcoa to close Warrick smelter, curtail remaining capacity at Point Comfort refinery

Lightweight metals producer Alcoa has announced it will permanently close its Warrick Operations smelter in Evansville, Ind., by the end of Q1 2016. By the end of Q2 2016, the company will curtail the remaining 810,000 metric tons of refining capacity at its Point Comfort operations in Texas.

The rolling mill and power plant at Warrick Operations will continue to operate.

Once these actions are implemented, Alcoa will have curtailed or closed 812,000 metric tons of smelting capacity and 3.3 million metric tons of refining capacity since its announced review in March 2015 of 500,000 metric tons of smelting capacity and 2.8 million metric tons of refining capacity.

The company forecasts improving supply-demand balances in both the alumina and aluminum markets for 2016 and is focused on positioning the business for success throughout market cycles.