Alcoa's Massena plant back in business

The Alcoa East plant in Massena, N.Y., is back up and running.

It closed in 2009, due to an historic drop in aluminum prices. The company furloughed more than 120 employees, but all those positions will now be brought back.

The company decided to restart the Massena plant due to new demand for aluminum, especially as the automotive and aerospace industries rebound from the recession. In addition, the New York Power Authority has agreed to give the aluminum giant two more years to develop a plan to modernize the plant.

ALCOA's CEO is optimistic a deal will prevent the plant from shutting down again. "I can't influence the world economy," says Klaus Kleinfeld. "How it looks today it looks reasonably positive, things have stabilized and the price is going up, especially here in the U.S."

"It's been a long time not knowing if I am going to have a job or not, and now we are pretty sure everything is going forward, especially with the start up with the line," says Alcoa employee AJ Labaff.

The Alcoa East plant is expected to be fully operational by July.