Century Aluminium reports decrease in shipments in Q1 2018

Century Aluminium Company, a global producer of primary aluminium, reported a net loss of $0.3 million for the first quarter of 2018. The adjusted net loss for the first quarter of was $3.5 million compared to adjusted net income of $24.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2017.

Sales for Q1 2018 were $454.5 million compared with $433.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2017. Shipments of primary aluminium were 187,238 tonnes compared with 189,000 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Century reported adjusted EBITDA of $21.8 million in Q1 2018, from $60.2 million Q4 2017.  The decrease was due to higher raw material costs, partially offset by higher LME and regional premiums. The company’s cash position at quarter end was $130.8 million and revolver availability was $160.9 million.

Michael Bless, President and Chief Executive Officer commented:“Industry fundamentals remain generally strong, with attractive demand growth persisting in most global regions.In addition, the previously announced Section 232 tariffs became effective in late March, creating the opportunity for a fairly-traded environment in the U.S. for the first time in decades.  This bold action by the U.S. administration has immediately had the intended effect of enabling the restart of U.S. primary production by Century and our industry peers.  We remain confident that any exemptions from the tariffs will be limited and will be formulated to maintain the tariff regime’s effectiveness.”

“We see significant opportunity for Century in the U.S. market over the coming years. Within this context, we were pleased to announce our intention to restart the three potlines at Hawesville curtailed in late 2015.  We will also complete several capital projects prudently required to support a return to the plant’s full production capacity.  The process is proceeding on plan and according to budget.  At this point, we intend to begin restarting cells in the first curtailed potline in June; we believe the plant will return to full capacity by early 2019,” said Michael Bless.

 “Century is safely supplied for the foreseeable future. That said, the alumina index price, which had fallen to normalized levels by early 2018 as we expected, briefly jumped to an all-time high. This development has more than offset the increase in the metal price over the same period.  We do not believe this environment can persist and have already seen the alumina price begin to fall; we are confident this trend will continue.  We thus intend to maintain the planned trajectory of our various projects, including most notably the restart of capacity at Hawesville.  Of course, we will continue to monitor market conditions and maintain appropriate flexibility to adapt our plans as appropriate.”

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