Alcoa to shut Italy aluminium plants by Feb 6.

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. aluminium producer Alcoa Inc  it plans an orderly shutdown of its two Italian smelters by February 6, despite government efforts to find energy at a competitive price.

"The best course, and the one that provides the best opportunity for the future operation of these smelters is, ...an orderly curtailment, which we plan to achieve by February 6," Alcoa said in a statement.

But the company committed earlier this week to restarting one of the plants after an orderly shutdown if it can secure cheap power and business conditions are conducive.

In November, Alcoa said it would temporarily idle operations at the smelters with a total capacity of 194,000 tonnes a year after the European Commission ordered it to pay back most of the state aid it had received in Italy since 2006.

As a result Alcoa anticipates a cash payment of $300-400 million and said it could not assume further financial risk.

In the statement, the producer expressed appreciation for efforts by the Ministry of Industry and the Italian government to try and secure energy at a competitive price for the Fusina and Portovesme plants.

But it said action to date was not enough to avoid their curtailment until an EU-approved solution was in place.

"...The price of energy available today through the use of the tools provided by the government is not at a level that allows us to operate our two smelters profitably or invest in our facilities to improve their competitiveness," it said.

The European Aluminium Association expressed concern at the news and also at the European Commission's announcement on Wednesday that it is investigating whether Greece's state-owned power utility illegally subsidised smelter Aluminium of Greece by selling it electricity below market prices.

"At a time when EU authorities claim they are doing their best to boost growth and jobs, and praise themselves for their crisis response, how can they at the same time find Europe's industries guilty of trying to survive?" asked Patrick de Schrynmakers, the EAA's secretary-general, in a statement.

"This has to stop, or two-thirds of Europe's aluminium smelters will close before 2013," he added.

(Reporting by Karen Norton; editing by Amanda Cooper)