Alcoa plans partial restart of aluminum smelter at Indiana plant

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Corp. has announced plans to restart three of five potlines at its Warrick Operations aluminum smelter near Evansville, Ind. The process to restart the three lines, with 177,900 tons of annual capacity, is expected to be complete in Q2 2018.

The Warrick rolling mill produces flat-rolled aluminum for the food and beverage can packaging industry. The smelter’s molten metal will supplement purchased scrap metal and other raw materials that the Warrick site will continue to procure.

The smelter at Warrick closed in March 2016. Two of the five smelting potlines will be classified as curtailed capacity and will remain idle. After this partial restart, Alcoa will have about 976,600 tons idled of its total smelting capacity of 3.7 million tons.

The Warrick location currently employs about 1,250 people. The restart will increase the site’s employment by approximately 275.