Sales revenues could not offset high production costs resulting from raw materials and utilities prices and as a consequence of the global economic crisis, Alro said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB.
The company's turnover rose to 2.65 billion lei in the first nine months, from 2.29 billion lei in the like period of 2021, reflecting lower aluminium quotations and slowing demand in a challenging economic environment.
"2022 brought the challenges faced by our industry to a new stress level, with the war closer to our boarders than ever, with soaring power prices and scarcity of supply, slowing demand and huge markets volatility," Alro chairman of the board of directors Marian Nastase said. "In this tough context, we had to take drastic measures to reinvent and adapt our business model to this unprecedented context. And thus, to preserve our business and our place in the international aluminium industry, we temporarily disrupted the vertical integration model while still believing that in the long run, this strategy remains a competitive advantage."
A subsidiary of Vimetco N.V., Alro is one of the largest vertically integrated aluminium producers in Europe with an installed production capacity of 265,000 tonnes of electrolytic aluminium per year, 47,000 tonnes of recycled aluminium, and 332,000 tonnes of primary cast aluminium.
Alro is also the parent company of Alro Group, which includes alumina producer Alum, bauxite mining company Sierra Mineral Holdings, extrusion business line Vimetco Extrusion, management company Conef, holding company Global Aluminium Ltd. and marketing services provider Bauxite Marketing Ltd and sales company Vimetco Trading.
Alro Group posted a net loss of 109.5 million lei in the first nine months of 2022, compared to a 24.6 million lei net loss in the same period of the previous year.
The group welcomes the adoption of a long-waited measure to compensate the indirect emissions costs embedded in the energy price for the years 2021-2030, which was published in the Official Gazette in October. The measure is expected to relieve some of the energy cost pressure for the period to come, Also said.
Alro's shares changed hands 4.05% lower at 1.42 lei by 1405 CET on Monday on the BVB.
