NZAS announced today that it would be shutting Line 4 at its Tiwai Point aluminum smelter because of COVID-19.

NZAS chief executive and general manager Stewart Hamilton said that, given the measures needed to be taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 and the current climate, the company needed to stabilise its operation by reducing load.

"To do this, we will engage with Meridian to reduce the 50MW of electricity that supports Line 4. The work to deliver this will take place this week where we will release the Line 4 team of 35 people to support production on the other three full lines," he said.

To support the health and safety of employees at NZAS, and in accordance with government directives in relation to containing the spread of Covid-19, a number of new controls had been implemented, Mr Hamilton said.

"We have worked very hard to segregate our teams and develop processes where people do not come into contact with each other during shift changes. Employees with underlying health issues are self-isolating and our nonoperational employees are working from home."

Given the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, and the four-week lockdown in New Zealand, the company's focus was on supporting our employees in a time of uncertainty and running a safe and efficient operation to meet its obligations with customers and suppliers who wee also challenged at this time, he said.