Amid Job Cuts, Alcoa Reports Q4 Losses
Alcoa cut 600 jobs after closing its Warrick Operations smelter last week.
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA lightweight metals manufacturer with a large footprint in Indiana ended the year with heavy losses. Alcoa (NYSE: AA) is reporting a fourth quarter 2015 net loss of $500 million, compared to a profit of $159 million during the same period in 2014.
The announcement comes less than a week after the company announced it was closing its smelter operation in southwest Indiana. The closure means the loss of over 600 jobs at Alcoa’s Warrick Operations, around one-third of the company’s local work force.
Alcoa Chairman and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said 2015 was a pivotal year for the company. "We substantially strengthened our aerospace offerings through innovations and acquisitions and our customers responded favorably, awarding us $9 billion in aerospace contracts; and we continued to ramp up our automotive business and shift the midstream to a higher-margin product mix. In the Upstream, we faced harsh headwinds with prices for alumina down 43 percent and aluminum down 28 percent. As a result of our closures, curtailments, productivity actions and new business structure we improved competitiveness and strengthened the portfolio. We are fully on track to launch two strong, standalone companies in the second half of 2016."
Alcoa did report some good news Monday. The company announced it has signed a long-term contract with GE (NYSE: GE) Aviation for jet engine components. The contract was valued at over $1.5 billion.
The company will use many of its manufacturing facilities as part of the contract, including its operation in LaPorte.
