The profit of Alro Slatina (ALR) continues to finance Chinese operations of the Vimetco group, which did, however, step into the black in 2009. The Vimetco group, registered in the Netherlands and listed on the London Stock Exchange, which holds the majority stake in the only Romanian-based aluminium producer Alro Slatina (ALR), reported a 63 million-dollar profit in 2009, after recording 144 million dollars in losses in the previous year. More than half the net profit, around 48 million dollars, comes from the group’s Romanian operations, where it owns alumina producer Alum Tulcea, which resumed production at the end of last year, after a two-year hiatus, during which time the plant was retooled.
Chinese operations contributed around 25 million dollars to Vimetco’s profit, although sales were around 85% higher than Alro’s. In 2008 Alro made a 91 million-dollar net profit, which could not, however, offset the 223 million-dollar losses posted in China. The difficult market conditions that have to do with the decline in the price of aluminium, led to significant restructuring within the group at the beginning of the year. However, the biggest restructuring was done at Alro, where output was cut by around 25% and the number of employees by around 1,000, to 2,900.