Alcoa Corp. plans to partially reopen its aluminum smelting operations in southwestern Indiana, restoring nearly half of the 600 jobs lost when it shut down the facility along the Ohio River last year.
Alcoa says it will spend about $30 million to restart three of five smelter lines at its Warrick Operations near Evansville, where its rolling mill makes aluminum for food and beverage packaging.
The Pittsburgh-based company closed the smelter in March of 2016, but now expects production to resume during spring of 2018.
Plans are to add about 275 jobs to the facility, which now has about 1,250 workers. That's expected to include layoff recalls.
Alcoa cited low aluminum prices for closing the smelter, but says it is confident the Trump administration will address Chinese overcapacity and other aluminum industry challenges.
