Alcoa to idle Texarkana plant, affecting 250 employees

Alcoa North American Rolled Products announced a few moments ago that it would idle, for an indefinite period of time, its aluminum rolling mill in Texarkana, Texas by the end of the third quarter of 2009 because of a continued weak outlook in common alloy markets. This is very difficult news for both sides of Texarkana and to me personally -- my mother-in-law and her sister are both employed at the plant. The plant idling was announced to employees today during meetings at the plant and will affect 250 salaried and hourly employees. They are scheduled to work until July 5, when the plant’s idling is scheduled to begin.

Alcoa North American President Mick Wallis said the idling is a direct result of the current economic environment and on-going credit crisis which has significantly reduced the demand for the Alcoa product. Resumption of operations at the plant will be dependent upon an improvement in these market conditions, he said. Mike Leherr, Operations Manager said “we regret this decision because of the impact to our employees. Our efforts over the next few weeks will be focused on ensuring our employees have the resources and tools needed to obtain employment within the community. Additionally, we will also focus on ensuring the transition of existing business to other Alcoa locations will be seamless to our customers. We will transition our existing business by September 1, 2009.” The Texarkana facility makes common alloy aluminum sheet and coil products for distributors, commercial applications, automotive, architectural, truck trailer, building and construction, and inter-company customers.