Alro Slatina, a producer of primary aluminium, reported an income worth 24.1m euros (79.4m RON), in the second quarter of this year, 25% down (in euros) against the same period last year. The company's turnover also registered a 1.3% decline and dropped to 0.15bn euros (0.51bn RON).
However, the situation for the overall first-half was visibly more solid. After the first quarter, when the company reported a record high income of 47m euros (160m RON), the next three months saw the growth rate slow down. However, against the first six months of last year, H1 income advanced by 21% to 72.3m euros (238m RON), while the turnover increased by 4% (in euros) to 0.33bn euros (1.1bn RON).
"Alro's H1 financial results were generated by the company's development strategy, which centred on the expansion of production capacities, with a focus on the delivery of high added value products, which are witnessing a constant rise in demand," says Christian Wuest, chairman of Alro, in a report on the financial results released by the company.
In fact, the strong Q1 increase was explained back then by the fact that Alro stopped retailing raw aluminium and started selling more processed products. As a result, the aluminium producer witnessed rising sales premiums and implicitly higher profit margins.
Over the same period, Alro benefited from the increase in prices, per tonne, of aluminium on international markets. "We benefited from a constant demand for aluminium, whilst the international markets maintained a positive trend in the first half of this year.
The price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange averaged at 2,800 dollars/tonne in H1, 2007, against the average of 2,500-2,600 dollars/tonne in the same period last year," added Wuest.
Alro boosted its level of aluminium production by over 9,000 tonnes in the first-half, but reduced its quantity o