Reuters reported that in a letter, obtained by Reuters, Mr Klaus Kleinfeld CEO of Alcoa said the USD 300 million penalty imposed by the European Commission would have a devastating impact on Alcoa at a time when prices have fallen 60%.

He said that the company would vigorously appeal the ruling but in the meantime it was losing USD 8 million a month at its Italian smelters.

He said “We can now only delay the curtailment if we receive written EC approval that the proposed solution is safe and legal, or written assurance from EC leadership that they will rule on the proposal by the end of February.”

Mr Kleinfeld said that “If we do not receive that written assurance this week, we will begin an orderly shutdown of the smelters so that we can bring them back to service as quickly as possible once the issue is resolved.”

Alcoa also said on Wednesday that it is equally "upset" with the situation, which it argues was forced on the company by a European Union ruling over electricity subsidies.

Mr Kevin Lowery spokesman of Alcoa told Reuters that “We understand the government is upset, we are upset too. We didn't chose this path, it was forced on us by the EU decision. We have made it very clear we want to operate in Italy.”

(Sourced from Reuters)