Alcoa says it will permanently close its Warrick Operations smelter in southwestern Indiana, eliminating 600 jobs.
Alcoa said Thursday it will close the 269,000-metric ton smelter east of Evansville by the end of the first quarter 2016.
The company says the Warrick Operations’ rolling mill and power plant will continue to operate. However, it will cut alumina production by 1 million metric tons by mid-year. It says that includes cutting the remaining 810,000 metric tons of refining capacity at its Point Comfort operations in Texas.
Alumina is used in the production of aluminum.
The company cited market conditions for the moves: It says the Midwest transaction aluminum price dropped by about 30 percent last year and the Alumina Price Index fell about 40 percent.