Russians at Alro rely on rebound of aluminium price to double profit

Aluminium producer Alro Slatina (ALR), controlled by Russian-held Vimetco group, has budgeted an almost 31% turnover increase for this year to 580 million dollars, and expects a 56.6 million-dollar net profit, up by 121% against 2009. Last year, Alro's turnover fell by over 30%, to 443 million dollars (1.3 billion RON), whilst the company's profit was down by over 70%, to 25.6 million dollars, i.e. 77.8 million RON, mainly because of the decline in demand and in the price of aluminium on international markets.
The growth budgeted for this year is based on a rebound of these indicators. The average price of aluminium is expected to rise in 2010 to 2,045 dollars/tonne, after last year it fell from 2,571 to 1,667 dollars.
The Alro management relies on increasing production both on the primary aluminium segment and on the processed aluminium segment, by 10% and 30% respectively, compared with last year's production levels. In 2010 Alro intends to produce 251,501 tonnes of primary aluminium and 40,000 tonnes of processed aluminium.