OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian aluminium maker Norsk Hydro is keeping a small portion of its capacity in Norway offline after maintenance due to a drop in demand for the metal, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Hydro has decided not to restart smelting pots at its Karmoey and Husnes plants, effectively curbing output by “a few tens of thousands of tonnes” out of the 1.1 million tonnes the company produces in Norway every year.

“The main reason is lower demand for aluminium,” Hydro spokesperson Halvor Molland said.

“We’re not actively shutting down but we’re holding off on restarts after maintenance … this is within what we would call normal variations,” he said.

The soaring cost of electricity also had some impact on the decision, but was not the key reason as most of Hydro’s power needs are covered from its own production as well as long-term contracts.

Norwegian newspaper Haugesunds Avis first reported the news on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Essi Lehto)