The world’s largest third-party producer of alumina, U.S.-listed Alcoa, has announced it will close its ageing Kwinana refinery, south of Perth, with the loss of all remaining jobs.
Production was phased out at the facility during the second quarter of 2024 amid fierce competition from Asia, with the loss of about a thousand jobs at the time, so the announcement was expected.
The company said multiple factors led to the decision, including its age—it is 60 years old—its scale and operating costs, market conditions, and bauxite grade challenges.
The company previously said the refinery had an annual production capacity of 2.2 million metric tonnes but had only been operating at about 80 percent of that level since January 2023.
“Alcoa operated the Kwinana refinery for a number of years in a challenging environment and made the difficult decision to permanently close the facility after unsuccessfully exploring multiple options for a sustainable path to restarting,” said the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Matt Reed.
Alcoa will begin to prepare the site for new economic development opportunities, working with the Western Australian state government on potential future land use options.
Around 220 staff remain at the facility, and this number will be gradually reduced as the closure progresses in 2026.
Alcoa would work with stakeholders to safely close the refinery and its residue storage areas, the company said.
The closure is expected to cost Alcoa about US$890 million in 2025 and another US$600 million over the following six years, though the company pointed out that this does not include any potential future proceeds from planned redevelopment at the site, which would be expected to cover a significant portion of the cash costs of the entire site’s closure.
Alcoa’s port and associated rail facilities at Kwinana will continue to operate, as will the company’s other WA and Victorian operations.
The WA Nationals called the announcement a “devastating blow for workers, their families, and the WA economy,” predicting that a further 5,000 flow-on jobs are now at risk across the supply chain and wider economy.
“The refinery has been a cornerstone of Kwinana’s industrial strip for more than 60 years, making its closure not only an economic hit but also a deep loss to the community’s identity,” Leader Shane Love said in a statement.
“The Cook Labor government will try to spin this as a ‘future redevelopment opportunity,’ but the reality is it represents the loss of a major industrial asset on their watch.”
The commodity price has been experiencing what S&P Global called a “global alumina meltdown” in 2025, due to increased production in China and the introduction of new refinery capacities in Indonesia.
