New Zealand Aluminium Smelters still losing money

New Zealand Aluminium Smelters has confirmed it has completed its plan to reduce the size of its organization by 100 roles but it is still losing money and further cuts are expected.

A spokesman for Pacific Aluminium said the Rio Tinto divestment process was continuing but NZAS would like a long-term future at the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter near Bluff, in Southland.

''We have put in place a number of initiatives we hope will secure that future. However, we are still losing money. At the end of the day, a business cannot keep losing money."

In addition to stopping planned capital expenditure, ongoing programmes to reduce costs would include a review of maintenance services, he said.

A statement from NZAS said further cost-saving initiatives would be pursued next year.

In addition to stopping planned capital expenditure, ongoing programmes to reduce costs will include a review of maintenance services during the first quarter of next year.

As reported in The Southland Times on Saturday, NZAS completed its organisational restructure without any forced redundancies.

Several employees elected to take voluntary redundancy while other employees who wanted to continue working at the smelter were placed into other roles.

NZAS continued to face increasingly difficult economic conditions and was still losing money. It would continue to try to work with "key suppliers and stakeholders to reduce costs and grow revenues", the statement says.