For instance, Rio Tinto Alcan said it plans to close its U.K.-based Lynemouth smelter.
FORBES: Some Aluminum Production Dips Below Costs; Output Cuts Likely If Condition Persists
This is largely related to the company's purchase of Canadian aluminium giant Alcan in 2007.
BBC: Rio Tinto boss Tom Albanese resigns over $14bn write-down
Also more than doubling was Alcan (nyse: AL - news - people ).
The deal rips Alcan from the jaws of Alcoa in what had become a nasty spat.
Some reports have said it has hired Merrill Lynch to investigate bids for both Alcoa and Alcan.
Anglesey Aluminium is jointly owned by Rio Tinto Alcan and Kaiser Aluminium and was formed in 1971.
This Atlanta aluminum-products manufacturer stopped reporting just ten months after it was spun off from Alcan in 2005.
Rio Tinto Alcan is currently holding a 90-day consultation with workers at the plant, which opened in 1972.
Alcan, a Canadian aluminium company, says it will help villagers in Bangladesh to remove arsenic from their water supplies.
Rio Tinto Alcan announced last week it was planning to close its Lynemouth factory with the loss of 515 jobs.
Alcan runs an aluminium smelter in Northumberland, but has recently announced that it will look to sell or shut the plant.
Rio Tinto Alcan chief executive Jacynth Cote said the smelting plant was no longer a "sustainable business" because of spiralling energy costs.
Alcan's boss, Jacques Bougie, evidently did not like Alcoa dimming his spotlight.
Competition concerns have already scuppered one big deal in the industry: the three-way aluminium merger proposed by Alcan, Pechiney and Algroup in 1999.
The most ambitious project is the 3, 600-mile Alaskan pipeline, which will run from the North Slope along the Alcan Highway through the Yukon and British Columbia.
This Atlanta aluminum-products manufacturer stopped reporting just ten months after it was spun off from Alcan (nyse: ALWI - news - people ) in 2005.
Novelis, which had been spun off from Alcan in 2005, had nearly a one-fifth share of the world market for flat-rolled aluminum, used for making beverage cans and auto parts.
But as Rio's difficulties in unloading some of Alcan's subsidiaries illustrate, getting decent prices for divested assets would been almost impossible in an industry paralysed by a dearth of financing.
For Alcan to buy a European firm like Pechiney or Algroup makes perfect sense: either would make a good fit with its existing lines, and give it the global reach it now lacks.
Alcan was up 354 places to No. 286, Barrick Gold rose 519 places to No. 485 and Goldcorp, showing the biggest absolute rise among Canadian companies, up more than 1, 000 places to No. 910.
In other news, shares in Alcoa moved dramatically after news of the purchase of Canadian aluminum producer Alcan by London-based Rio Tinto, staging an 8.6% rally Thursday through the stock's all-time high set in 2001.
Given the fact that Alcoa is having its recent bid for Canadian aluminum rival Alcan (nyse: AL - news - people ) reviewed by regulators, implied volatility has remained high at around 51%.
The power in Iceland to do this is so cheap that it is economical for companies like Alcoa and Alcan to ship the raw materials all the way to Iceland and then ship the final product out it to its customers.
Alcan was up 354 places to No. 286, Barrick Gold (nyse: ABX - news - people ) rose 519 places to No. 485 and Goldcorp (nyse: GG - news - people ), showing the biggest absolute rise among Canadian companies, up more than 1, 000 places to No. 910.
应用推荐