NEWBURGH, Ind. — Alcoa has started hiring workers ahead of the planned summer restart of its aluminum smelting operations in southwestern Indiana.

The Pittsburgh-based company cited low aluminum prices when it closed its Warrick Operations smelter in March 2016, costing about 600 workers their jobs.

Alcoa said last year it would reopen three of five smelter lines and add about 275 jobs at the complex, where its rolling mill makes aluminum for food and beverage packaging.

Alcoa spokesman Kari Fluegel told the Evansville Courier & Press the company has completed initial hiring for the restart and recalled all former employees who wanted to resume working at the smelter along the Ohio River in Newburgh, southeast of Evansville.

She said work on the restart is nearly complete and smelting should resume this summer.