TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US aluminium and light-weight alloys producer Alcoa on Monday reported that it had completed two previously announced sales within its Global Primary Products portfolio.

The divestitures, one in the US and the second in Jamaica, were aligned with Alcoa’s strategy to lower its cost base and create a globally competitive business in the face of lower commodity prices.

Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC) finalised the sale of its 55% ownership stake in the Jamalco bauxite mining and alumina refinery joint venture (JV) to Noble Group. The company completed the sale, announced on October 15, after receiving all regulatory approvals. Jamalco is located in Clarendon, Jamaica.

AWAC would continue as Jamalco’s managing operator for three years under a compensated service agreement and employees would remain employed by Jamalco. AWAC was the JV owned 60% by Alcoa and 40% by Alumina of Australia.

Alcoa also finalised the sale of its 50.3% interest in the Mt Holly aluminium smelter in Goose Creek, South Carolina, to Century Aluminum Company. The smelter had the capacity to produce 229 000 metric tons of aluminium a year. Alcoa had announced its plan to sell its stake to Century on October 23.

Both sales were in line with Alcoa's strategy to create a globally competitive commodity business. In its Primary Metals business, the company had curtailed, closed or sold 1.3-million metric tons, or 31% of its highest-cost global smelting capacity since 2007.

At Alcoa’s 2014 investor day, the company had reaffirmed its goal to lower its position on the global aluminium cost curve by 5% from the forty-third percentile to the thirty-eighth percentile by 2016. In its alumina business, the company said its position on the alumina cost curve had improved to the twenty-fifth percentile in 2014 from the twenty-seventh percentile in 2013. Alcoa had also reaffirmed its goal to further improve that cost position to the twenty-first percentile by 2016.