Rio Tinto cuts more aluminum output

Rio Tinto’s (RTP-n, RIO-L) aluminium unit, Alcan, is permanently closing its Beauharnois smelter in Quebec by the end of the second quarter.

It will also temporarily cut production at its Vaudreuil alumina refinery by 400,000 tonnes, or about 25%. (Alumina is the raw material used to make aluminium.)

The cost-cutting measures are part of a global effort to reduce aluminium production by an additional 6%, bringing the total reduction to about 11%, and nearly 6% for alumina production.

In the fourth quarter of 2008 Rio Tinto Alcan curtailed global aluminium production by 5%, bringing the total decrease today to 450,000 tonnes or about 11% of its total annualized aluminium capacity.

The Beauharnois smelter produces about 52,000 tonnes of aluminium each year. It was commissioned in 1943 and employs 220 people.

Outside Canada, Rio Tinto Alcan announced that it would halt production at the Gardanne refinery in France by 15% or about 105,000 tonnes. It said it may also sell its 50% interest in Alcan Ningixa, a joint venture in China.

All of Rio Tinto Alcan’s cost-cutting measures will result in job losses of about 1,100.