Alcoa, which employs 7,900 people in Russia, said it aimed to align production at its two aluminum fabrication plants with demand and to reduce costs. The measures will be executed throughout 2009.

"We will have to make a number of very tough decisions, but such is the requirement of the current economic situation which we can't ignore," Alcoa Russia President Andrei Donets said in a statement.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said on Tuesday it would slash more than 15,000 jobs worldwide, halve capital spending and sell four businesses as it reduces aluminum production by 18 percent in the face of the global economic downturn.

In Russia, the company owns the Samara Metallurgical Plant -- which was the Soviet Union's largest aluminum fabrication plant -- and Alcoa Metallurg Rus in the southern town of Belaya Kalitva. Neither plant is profitable.

Alcoa did not specify whether the 18 percent of the workforce would be fired. The company said it would redeploy and retrain employees affected by the restructuring, which will affect its Moscow office as well as the two plants.

It also did not give details about production plans.

Alcoa bought its two Russian plants in 2005 and has invested $768 million in their development, including the $257.5 million acquisition price. Donets said Russia remained a "strategic" market for Alcoa.

Per capita aluminum consumption in Russia, at 5-6 kg per year, is about seven times lower than in the United States, where the average person consumes between 35 kg and 40 kg.

Alcoa Russia, which supplies products to the aerospace, automotive and shipbuilding sectors, was last year selling 60 percent of its products to domestic consumers, up from 50 percent in 2007.

(Reporting by Robin Paxton)