The Group registered a turnover of RON 2.85 billion, in 2023, lower by 16% compared to the previous year, in line with the decrease of the international aluminium quotations and the slow down of the business environment.
““The international aluminium market continued to be very challenging in 2023, with lower demand for some of our products and still elevated energy prices that impacted our final result. However, once again, our investments and development plan proved to be correct and helped us partially offset the downturn,” said Marian NĂSTASE, Chairman of ALRO’s Board of Directors. “As a result, we increased the sales for specific processed aluminium products, while continuing to invest in technology that helps us diversify our products’ portfolio and increase operational efficiency”, said Marian Nastase.
According to the financial report, “the aluminium quotations on London Metal Exchange (LME) decreased by 16% in 2023, compared to 2022, with the average three months seller contracts standing at 2,285 USD/tonne, down from 2,713 USD/tonne, registered in 2022. While August brought the lowest LME quotation (2,123 USD/tonne), in Q4 the market showed slight signs of improvement, the quotations reaching 2,224 USD/tonne (still lower compared to Q4 2022 when it stood at 2,345 USD/tonne). While, in Q4 2023, the LME was 5% lower compared to the same period of 2022, the Group’s quarterly turnover was increased 4% compared to Q4 2022, thanks to its focus on increasing the sales for high added value products”.
At European level, 2023 was characterised by a high offer of aluminium products due to distributors efforts to sell inventories, but also by high imports, mainly from China, on the back of a slowdown of the economy in general, that put further pressure on final prices and demand. At local level, while the energy prices showed slight signs of decrease as a result of the authorities effors to stabilise the market, ALRO Group still faced high costs with energy coming from previous contracts.
ALRO is a subsidiary of Vimetco PLC (Republic of Cyprus), a global, vertically-integrated primary and processed aluminium producer. The structure of ALRO shareholders is: Vimetco PLC (54.19%), Paval Holding (23.21%), Fondul Proprietatea (10.21%) and others (12.39%).
ALRO is one of the largest vertically integrated aluminium producers in Europe, by production capacity, with a production capacity of 265,000 tpa of electrolytic aluminium, an Eco-Recycling capacity reaching 100,000 tpa by the end of 2023, resulting in a production of recycled liquid aluminium of 94,000 tpa. The capacity of the Aluminium Cast House is 315,000 tpa and the processing capacity is 140,000 tpa of cold and hot rolled facilities and extrusion division.
Alro has a market value of RON1.03 billion after its ALR shares have lost 6.2% so far in 2024, amid deals worth RON4.2 million, as per stock market data.