Romanian aluminium company Alro SA (Alro Slatina) has begun the process of complete closure this week, citing high energy prices as the main culprit of its inevitable shutdown.
According to domestic media, the plant is already in the midst of the first phase of closure, which will ultimately see output reduced by 60 percent.
The president of the plant’s labor union Constantin Popescu elaborated on the ills plaguing the plant.
“We are facing exorbitant prices in the energy market and a lack of energy in the market. We have already started the closure process. We can’t find energy. We will close the production lines. We cannot produce at the price of USD 2,300-2,600 per ton of aluminium.”
The plant is among the biggest vertically-integrated aluminium producers on the continent and one of Romania’s largest consumers of energy.
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.