Romania’s Alro, a subsidiary of aluminum producer Vimetco, reported a loss of RON 17 million (EUR 3.8 million) in the first semester against a profit of RON 26 million (EUR 6 million) in the same period of last year, citing high energy costs and disappointing aluminum prices that reached fresh lows.
Alro’s turnover lost 9.5 percent to RON 1.06 billion (EUR 241 million) and the producer reported a slight decrease in primary aluminum sales to 71,168 tons. Sales of processed products, meanwhile, climbed to 36,711 tons.
Marian Nastase, board chairman at Alro, said the results were impacted by factors outside the aluminum industry.“The overall energy costs, including the eco taxes, continued to put pressure on the Company’s final results. Moreover, the aluminum prices on the international market are reaching new minimum levels. Forced to face this complex and unfavorable context, Alro implemented new solutions to cut costs and kept its focus on highly processed products, in order to maintain its competitiveness,” said Nastase.
At a group level, primary aluminum production remained flat at 124,648 tons, while processed aluminum output rose to 48, 518 tons.
Alum Tulcea, the alumina producer controlled by Alro, reported a slight decrease in output to 203,320 tons, while bauxite production decreased to 368,989 tons due to unfavorable conditions in Sierra Leone, where the company controls a miner.
Shares in Alro lost 0.57 percent to RON 1.5710 on Wednesday lunch trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Business Review Romania
Source: actmedia.eu (Romanian News Agency)
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