Alcoa Cuts Back on Metal Making as Aluminum Extends Price Slump

  • Alcoa will have cut 45% of total smelting capacity since 2007
  • Measures to be completed by end of the first quarter 2016
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Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, stepped up efforts to close higher-cost smelting and refining capacity as a global glut batters the price of the metal.

The New York-based company will reduce smelting capacity by 503,000 metric tons and alumina refining by 1.2 million tons, it said Monday in a statementBloomberg Terminal. The measures will be completed by the end of next quarter. About 1,500 jobs probably will be lost, spokeswoman Monica Orbe said in an e-mail.