Alcoa cuts alumina, aluminum flouride production

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NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA) said on Friday it will reduce alumina refining at its Point Comfort, Texas, facility, effective immediately, and also plans temporary cuts in aluminum fluoride production.

At the Alcoa World Alumina plant in Point Comfort it will reduce refining to between 1.6 and 1.9 million metric tonnes a year from its rated capacity of 2.3 million tonnes a year.

Alcoa said the cuts at Alcoa World Alumina, a global alliance between Alcoa and WMC, Ltd. of Australia, were in response to decreased external and internal demand for alumina.

Also, Alcoa said it will temporarily curtail production of aluminum fluoride at its Fort Meade, Fla., facility due to reduced demand for that product, effective March 31, 2001.

Fort Meade has a rated capacity of 24,000 tonnes per year, but was operating at about two-thirds of the capacity rate.