Hydro: Earnings significantly down in second quarter
Hydro’s underlying earnings before financial items and tax (Ebit) was NOK875 million (€90.4m) in the second quarter.
This is a drastic slump compared with the result of NOK2,713 million in the same quarter last year. This development mainly reflects lower realized aluminium and alumina prices and effects from the cyber-attack.
Alunorte reached 80-85% capacity utilization with the state-of-art press filter technology in June. The bauxite mine Paragominas and part-owned Albras smelter are also ramping up successfully, says Hydro.
“We maintain our view of a global primary aluminium market in deficit for 2019 in the range 1-1,5 million tonnes. We take down expected global primary demand growth for 2019 to 1-2%, as we are seeing signs of weakening in some of our market segments,” says president and CEO Hilde Merete Aasheim.
Hydro’s ‘Better’ improvement programme will not reach its original 2019 target. This is mainly due to the production embargo at Alunorte and subsequent production curtailments at Alunorte’s bauxite source Paragominas and the Albras plant.
The ‘KlimPro’ research project investigates the influence on the quality of secondary aluminium of replacing methane fuel in part by hydrogen.
Grain refiner specialist MQP has won a global business award for its customer-centric shipping model spanning the continents for the second year running.
The US Department of Energy has announced financial support for further aluminium decarbonisation and industry growth. Investment exceeds USD650m for four major aluminium projects.