Alcoa Planning $60M Investment in NY Smelter

Alcoa Corp. announced October 22 it plans to spend $60 million on its Massena, New York aluminum smelter. Additionally, the aluminum company said it had signed a new 10-year contract with the New York Power Authority to supply the site with power.

According to a company release, Alcoa will spend the $60 million through 2028 to rebuild the Massena Operations’ anode baking furnace, which supplies anodes to the smelting process. Empire State Development, which controls New York’s Urban Development Corporation and its Job Development Authority, helped fund the rebuild by contributing $6 million.

The new power-sourcing agreement with NYPA, meanwhile, will provide Massena Operations with 240 megawatts of renewable energy through April 1, 2036, with options to extend for two more five-year terms.

In a statement, Alcoa CEO William F. Oplinger praised both state agencies.

“We are proud to make aluminum in New York and the United States,” Oplinger said. “Long-term, competitively priced energy enables Alcoa to proceed with this important investment that will help us meet the demands of today while planning for tomorrow. We are extremely pleased to have worked with NYPA and ESD to achieve this outcome for our Massena Operations, which will continue to bring economic benefits to the region and sustain American manufacturing.”

According to Alcoa, Massena Operations is the world’s longest continuously operating smelter, producing aluminum since 1902. It has an annual nameplate capacity of 130,000 metric tons and employs about 550 workers.