Alro profits down in euros

The Slatina-based company Alro, the most important producer of primary aluminium in Central and Eastern Europe, made net profits of 32.6 million euros last year, 3.8% lower than in 2003.

Alro turned over 347 million euros in 2004, a 32% increase on the previous year.

Alro’s management believes that analysis of results in terms of last year’s average exchange rates for the ROL against the euro cannot be accurate given the extreme volatility of the foreign exchange market last year.

“Assessment in euros against the average exchange rate would have been perfectly accurate if domestic currency purchasing power had been taken into account. Alro’s profits are 8% higher in euros against the last exchange rate from December, as the company was seriously hurt by the depreciation of the domestic currency in 2003. The depreciation of the ROL was positive from the point of view of sales, but negative in terms of dividends, which were lower in euros,” said Marian Nastase, the Alro deputy chairman.

The higher turnover is primarily due to the fact that Alro took over the sale of Alprom products in accordance with a processing contract signed with Alprom, Nastase says. Alro produced 215,000 tonnes of aluminium last year, a 6% increase on 2003. Aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange started 2004 at about 1,500 dollars/tonne and ended it at approximately 1,820 dollars/tonne.

Alro is controlled by a Russian oligarch through a trader, Marco International. The company has a market capitalisation of 586 million euros.
catalin.ciocan@zf.ro