Alro Slatina invested over USD 100 million in environment related projects

• The Company focused on decreasing the energy consumption, the overall level of emissions and the industrial water consumption
• Alro implemented the Environment, Health & Safety management system and received respective certifications confirming full compliance with EU and international legislation 

Slatina, 09 April 2014 – Alro SA (BSE: ALR, “The Company” or “Alro”), one of the largest aluminium producers in Central and Eastern Europe, implements, continuously programmes for increasing the overall efficiency of the Company. Over the past 10 years, following investments worth USD 500 million, out of which USD 100 million in environment projects, the strategy implemented targeted modernizing its equipments in order to remain competitive on the international markets, but also to fully comply with environment regulations.

“By constantly working to increase the efficiency of our activity, we managed to consolidate our competitiveness on a very volatile market, while complying with the highest environmental standards”, said Gheorghe Dobra, CEO of Vimetco and General Manager of Alro Slatina. “We succeeded in reducing the energy consumption, although we increased the output of high added value products, we drastically reduced emissions and the industrial water consumption.”

The programme to reduce the electricity consumption led to record results in the aluminium industry, specifically in the Processed Aluminium Division, where between 2004 and 2013, the energy consumption decreased three times. The Company succeeded to reach a 6% decrease in the electricity consumption at the Electrolysis. Furthermore, the LED lighting solutions, currently under implementation, will decrease the consumption with over 75%, in the specific sectors.

By commissioning a recycling facility for the aluminium scrap, at the end of 2013, the Company managed to achieve a 95% energy reduction, compared to the electrolytic process.

The significant reduction of electricity consumption led to reduced emissions. Alro reduced the CO2 emissions by at least 450,000 tonnes per year, by 2005. The Company obtained the Integrated Environment Authorization, in 2006, valid for a period of 10 years.

The fluorine recovery increased from 65% to 99%, after treating the gas from the Electrolysis using dry scrubbing technology, instead of wet scrubbing. Moreover, the Company implemented a system of capturing the gases from anode baking furnaces, and registered a significant reduction of emissions by using new types of melting furnace burners in the Cast House.

Overall, last year the CO2 emissions decreased six times, compared to 1989 and PFC emissions decreased39 times, compared to 1990.

Alro also succeeded in reducing the natural gas consumption in the Anodes Plant three times compared to 2002, while the consumption in processed aluminium sector decreased 10 times, over the past ten years.

In 2013, Alro decreased the water consumption by more than five times, compared to 2007, by commissioning a water recycling facility. Thus, the exhausted water decreased by over seven times, for the same period.

Also, besides receiving the international certification ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 9001, for the Environment, Health & Safety,through these increased efficiency investment programs, the Company received the “Diploma of excellency” for outstanding performances on environment protection, awarded by the local environment authority.

For further information please contact:

www.alro.ro

Florenta Ghita
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 one of 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.