“We are losing $15,000 an hour because of the ecotaxes,” Alro’s general manager Gheorghe Dobra told a news conference.
Alro, the largest aluminum smelter in central and eastern Europe, is one of the largest energy consumers in Romania. The company has invested over $100 million over in energy-saving upgrades, but power costs continued to increase, pushing the smelter into a loss.
“I think we’ll have to scale down operations. We are considering importing aluminum bars,” Dobra said.
Alro, a member of the Dutch-registered Vimetco group, recently announced plans to shut down several production units and cut jobs in a move to curb expenditure.
“The Board of Directors no longer supports the company’s 2014 income and expenses budget, because of the newly increased quota for green certificates,” Alro said in a statement.
According to company data, Alro pays an average $80 a megawatt hour of electricity, compared with $46.6 a MWh in Germany, or $59.6 a MWh in France.
Local industrial electricity consumers have long been criticizing the government for its vast support of renewable energy, warning that the high energy costs might drive companies to relocate to other countries.
Unlike most companies, aluminum producers are unable to transfer part of their costs to end-consumers, because aluminum prices are established on the London Metal Exchange.