On Tuesday, September 30, Alcoa Corporation, a global industry leader in bauxite, alumina, and aluminium products, confirmed the permanent closure of its Kwinana alumina refinery in Western Australia. This decision has been taken after a year of cease in operation and gradual phase-wise curtailments. Since January 2023, the 60-year old refinery has been operating at around 80 per cent of its capacity.
Already the curtailment of production caused a few hundreds of job loss, from approximately 800 employees to around 250. Now, the permanent shutdown will affect the rest, as part of the initial plans where the company mentioned that job cuts would continue till a point employee numbers are scaled down to about 50.
After exploring many ways to restart the refinery’s production, Alcoa finally confirmed they could zero down on no sustainable path.
Matt Reed, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for Alcoa, explained, “Alcoa operated the Kwinana refinery for a number of years in a challenging environment and made the difficult decision to permanently close the facility after unsuccessfully exploring multiple options for a sustainable path to restarting. We appreciate the dedication and support of our Kwinana employees, contractors and suppliers who have made a major contribution to Western Australia's economic development and prosperity over more than six decades.”
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