Alcoa reiterated that it would abandon its traditional aluminum manufacturing business.

On Tuesday, local time, Alcoa Corp. Reiterated its commitment not to add new aluminum production capacity, saying the world should not rely on the largest U.S. aluminum producer to help ease supply difficulties.

Roy Harvey, the company's chief executive, said Alcoa had no plans to increase capacity by building or adding aluminum smelters, according to Bloomberg.

His comments reiterated the company's position in November to use only Elysis's technology to reduce emissions.

Harvey said at the BMO Capital Markets Conference in Florida:

We choose not to invest in traditional technologies-that is, brownfields or greenbelts. We won't do that, because when you design and start building, Elysis is ready.

Elysis, a joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto PLC Group, has developed the technology to produce aluminum by a carbon dioxide-free production method. Alcoa has said it expects the project to be produced on a commercial scale within a few years and promised in November that any new capacity would use only this technology.

Aluminium prices surged to an all-time high on Monday as Russia's military action against Ukraine exacerbated persistent shortages in global aluminium supplies. As an industrial metal, aluminum is used in the production of automobiles, aircraft, household appliances and packaging products. Century Aluminum Co., the second-largest U.S. aluminum producer, announced the possibility of increasing production capacity later in the day.

Jesse Gary, chief executive of Century Aluminium, said the company could restart its two smelters with cash, bringing total production to about 100000 tons. Gary made it clear that this was one of the options it had at its disposal at a time when aluminium prices were rising. Shares of Century Aluminum rose 12% on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Harvey said Russia's military action against Ukraine had no direct impact on Alcoa's business, but that the war would affect the global supply of alumina. Alumina is a key raw material for aluminum manufacturing. As sanctions against Russia increased, the chief executive also said Alcoa was assessing how to deal with the sale of aluminium to Russian companies.

Alcoa shares soared as much as 14%, rising 5.9% to close at $79.78 in intraday trading. Benchmark aluminium prices in London rose 3.3 per cent. According to the World Bureau of Metal Statistics, there was a shortage of 1.9 million tons in the global market last year.