Alro Group invested approximately USD 77 million to increase energy efficiency of its Romanian operations
Thu, 02/09/2012 - 10:03
- The programme has been implemented over the last six years aimed at lowering electricity, water and gas consumption
- Investment split: USD 58.4 million for the primary aluminium production, USD 3 million for the processed aluminium, and over USD 15.6 million for Alum Tulcea
Slatina, 09 February 2012 – Alro SA (BSE: ALR, “Alro”, “the Company”), the largest aluminium producer in Central and Eastern Europe, implemented an investment programme of over USD 77 million for energy efficiency, over the past six years. The investments targeted both the primary and processed aluminium production processes, as well as the alumina refinery.
“We have always put a strong emphasis on continuous improvement of our operations, with important results shown especially under the current market conditions”, said Gheorghe Dobra, CEO of Vimetco. “By successfully implementing the energy projects over the past six years, we reached a major target and achieved important cost reduction by increasing efficiency of the operations. Moreover, the lower consumption per tonne of aluminium helped us partially offset the increase in energy prices.”
Last year, Alro invested approximately USD 8 million in energy efficiency programmes at the smelter. The Company replaced two energy intensive K-250 compressors with modern ones, thus decreasing the energy consumption and the cooling water consumption for the processed aluminium production. In 2011, Alro also optimized the combustion in the Anodes baking furnaces, reducing the natural gas consumption. It upgraded the burners and insulation at four annealing furnaces, thus achieving a further reduction in electricity and gas consumption. The Company invested in its industrial water and drainage system. Last year, Alro also invested approximately USD 7 million in energy efficiency programmes at the alumina producer, Alum Tulcea.
Ever since 2005, Alro intensified its programme of increasing energy efficiency of its units, investing approximately USD 77 million. Thus, among the main projects implemented, the Company invested over USD 27 million for increasing the electric power intensity to the active electrolysis pot room series up to 120 kA. This led to higher production efficiency, with direct impact on reduction of the unit’s energy consumption. Between 2006 and 2008, Alro invested over USD 26 million in seven new power transformers groups and 14 rectifying cabinets on the pot rooms 5-8. This also led to a reduction in energy consumption.
The strong investment programme for increasing the energy efficiency allowed the Company to increase its output from 240,000 tonnes of primary aluminium in 2005, to the peak of 288.000 tonnes of primary aluminium in 2008, without a significant increase in energy consumption.
All the electricity purchased by Alro, both through direct contracts, and on the OPCOM platform, has been and continues to be used solely for the production within Alro, Vimetco Extrusion and ALUM. Alro, Vimetco and any of their subsidiaries never resold or plan to resell electricity to third parties.
For further information please contact:
Florenţa Ghiţă
Premium Communication
Bucharest
phone +40 (0) 21 411 01 52
Email florenta.ghita@premiumpr.ro
Notes to the Editors:
Alro is subsidiary of Vimetco N.V., a global, vertically-integrated primary and processed aluminium producer. Alro is the largest aluminium producer in Central and Eastern Europe measured by volume with an installed production capacity of 265,000 tonnes per year.
The main markets for the aluminium manufactured by Alro are within the EU (Hungary, Poland, Greece, Germany and Romania). Alro also exports to the US and Asia. Alro is ISO 9001 certified for quality management and has NADCAP as well as EN 9100 certificates for aerospace production organizations. Alro’s products adhere to the quality standards for primary aluminium on the LME, as well as international standards for flat rolled products.
The contents of the website www.alro.ro are not incorporated into, and do not form part of, this announcement.
