Alcoa said Thursday that it plans to shut its two aluminium smelters in Italy by Feb. 6, but could restart them if the company is able to secure power for them.

Alcoa announced in November that it would suspend operations at the smelters temporarily after the European Commission prohibited electricity subsidies that the Italian government was providing, claiming the smelters would operate at a loss without them.

"If we are able to secure power, we would want to restart both smelters," the company spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.

Talks between the company and government have been ongoing, Alcoa said.

The two smelters have a combined annualized capacity of 194,000 metric tons of aluminium.