Alcoa says it will delay the curtailment of its Intalco Works smelter in Ferndale, Washington until the end of the second quarter of 2016.
The plant was initially scheduled to curtail by the end of the first quarter.
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The company announced a full curtailment of the Intalco smelter (230kmt) on 2 November last year, with the plant’s casthouse continuing to operate.
However, recent changes in energy and raw material costs have made it more cost effective in the near term, says Alcoa, to keep the smelter operating to provide molten metal to the plant’s casthouse.
Once all announced curtailments and closures are complete, the company will have removed around 25% operating smelting capacity and 20% of operating refining capacity by mid-2016.
Alcoa globally will have 2.1m metric tons of operating smelting capacity and 12.3m metric tons of operating refining availability remaining.
