Alcoa’s Portland Aluminium smelter to cut production capacity to 75%

Alcoa Corp said on Wednesday that the Portland Aluminium smelter in the Australian state of Victoria would begin reducing overall production because of operational instability.

Production at the smelter is to be reduced to about 75% of the total consolidated capacity of 358,000 metric tons per year, the company said.

Alcoa Corp’s share of that total capacity is 197,000 metric tons per year.

Portland Aluminium is an unincorporated joint venture, in which Alcoa of Australia Limited has a 55% stake, CITIC Nominees Pty Ltd has a 22.5% stake and Marubeni Aluminium Australia Pty Ltd holds the remaining 22.5%.

“Our teams are focused on safely taking the production offline and working to restore stability across the facility,” Bill Oplinger, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at Alcoa, said in a press release.

“Completing this task in a controlled fashion is our priority as we work to improve operations.”

The smelter has recently experienced challenges related to the production of rodded anodes, which are essential to convey electricity into the smelting pots, Alcoa said.