Alcoa Says Norway Needs Competitive Power Agreements (Update1)

BOSTON, May 28 -- Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, said the government of Norway must support "globally competitive" power contracts to draw additional investments in the industry.

Alcoa has two aluminum smelters in Norway, where power agreements will expire after 2020, Kevin Lowery, a spokesman for New York-based Alcoa, said today in a telephone interview.

With government support for power, the company could consider additional investments in Norway along the lines of a smelter the company recently built in Iceland, the Oslo-based newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv reported today, citing Alcoa Executive Vice President Bernt Reitan. Such a plant may involve an investment of 10 billion kroner ($1.53 billion), have a capacity of 350,000 tons and may be located in Finnmark in the north, the paper said, quoting Reitan.

"First things first, we need to repower our existing plants," Lowery said in response to questions about Reitan's remarks. "If we do that, then we would consider investment in additional assets."

Alcoa's existing smelters in Norway have combined annual capacity for 282,000 metric tons of aluminum, or 5.9 percent of the company's global total, according to Alcoa's 2009 annual report published in February.

Alcoa rose 57 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $11.82 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have fallen 27 percent this year.