Vale Inco, Alcoa and U.S. Steel cutting back

Responding to the ongoing slowdown in the nickel market, Vale Inco, the nickel division of Vale (RIO-N), has announced 900 job cuts worldwide out of a 14,000 total work force. Most of the affected jobs are in the corporate, management and business support areas.

“Unfortunately the tough decisions announced today are necessary in these exceptional times,” said Tito Martins, Vale Inco president and CEO, in a release. He blamed the job cuts on low nickel prices and reduced demand for the metal.

Cory McPhee, Vale Inco’s director of external communications, says that 423 of the job cuts will be in Canada, and of these, 261 jobs will be cut in Sudbury, Ont.

U.S. Steel (X-N) is also cutting jobs in Canada, but the company says that the cuts are temporary. A total of 1,500 jobs are affected at the finishing and coking operations at Hamilton Works in Hamilton, Ont., and the steelmaking and finishing operations at Lake Erie Works near Nanticoke, Ont.

The company expects that the idling will last a few weeks. In a statement, U.S. Steel chairman and CEO John Surma said: “The difficult decision to continue to temporarily consolidate our production, we believe, is a necessary response to current market conditions.”

Aluminum giant Alcoa (AA-N) is also cutting back in Canada. According to Pierre Despres, the company’s vice-president of public and government affairs, the company is planning to reduce hours worked at its Quebec smelters by 15%, with a corresponding reduction in payroll.

Despres says that Alcoa is starting talks with its unionized and non-unionized workers, seeking to reach an agreement by the end of the month. He blames the cuts on economic circumstances and low aluminum prices. The company has over 3,000 employees at its primary metal operations in Quebec.

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