Romanian aluminium company Alro SA (Alro Slatina) assured investors this week that it continues to search for ways to resume electrolytic aluminium production at last year’s levels, with an eye at restarting at similar levels next year.
Alro said in a press release that it is planning to begin this year with production at two of the five electrolytic aluminium production halls. In addition, it will spend the remainder of the year staging the plant to quickly and efficiently begin regular aluminium production once energy costs resume a sustainable price.
Additionally, Alro says it is attempting to retain as much of the current workforce as possible by reassigning workers to other roles. The firm hopes to be able to smoothly transition the plant’s labor force as well once prices for electricity fall to more manageable levels.
Marian NĂSTASE, Alro’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, elaborated upon his firm’s plans in a related press release.
“We are actively looking for solutions to secure the energy needs for 2023 for all our five potrooms and thus to preserve the vertical integration feature of our business, as we believe the integration will remain in the long run one of the main advantages of our business model. Based on our current estimations, the restarting costs for each electrolysis potroom may be in the range of USD 10-12 millions, depending on the raw material prices at that time and the period elapsed from the moment of placing them into conservation.”
Currently Alro is purchasing cold primary metals from third parties in order to sustain output of processed products. The firm expects that this will maintain 2022’s turnover will remain similar to that of 2021.
Alro was founded in 1963 and is based in Slatina, Romania. The firm, a subsidiary of Vimetco N.V., is managed by Russian investor Vitaliy Machitski and has an installed capacity of 265,000 metric tons per year, making it one of the largest producers in Central and Eastern Europe outside of Russia and Scandinavia. It also produces 35 thousand metric tons per annum of recycled aluminium and churns out 335 thousand metric tons per annum of cast aluminium.