Alro invested USD 100 million to increase the energy efficiency

Mon, 10/14/2013 - 09:37

  • The electricity consumption for flat rolled products decreased by more than 75%, over the past nine years, while the gas consumption was lower by more than 90% 

Slatina, 14 October 2013 – Alro SA (BSE: ALR, “The Company” or “Alro”), one of the largest aluminium producers in Central and Eastern Europe, implemented an investment programme, worth USD 100 million, with the aim of increasing the energy efficiency of its operations. The investments, developed over the past nine years targeted both, the primary and processed aluminium production.

“We are working continuously to improve the efficiency of our operations, in order to remain competitive on a fragile international market”, said Gheorghe Dobra, CEO of Vimetco and General Manager of Alro Slatina.“Over the past nine years, we invested in state-of-the-art equipment and we increased the output towards higher added value products; moreover we managed to reduce the overall energy consumption and to implement an aluminium scrap recycling line. All these measures aim to consolidate our position on the aluminium market.”

Following these investment programmes in energy efficiency, Alro succeeded to reduce the electricity consumption per tonne of aluminium by over 75%, for flat rolled products, in the past nine years, while the natural gas consumption decreased by more than 90%, during this period. The direct electricity consumption for the entire production process of the smelter was 10% lower in 2012, compared to 2003, while the total natural gas consumption was 30% lower.

As part of the strategy to increase efficiency, the Company continued to invest in expanding its high added value production capacity and thus, it increased the capacity of processed aluminium. At the same time, Alro continued to invest in processing the aluminium scrap to save energy costs, in order to counteract the effect of the latest dramatic increase of the energy consumption taxes that impacted the aluminium industry – green certificates, cogeneration tax etc.

The investments in energy efficiency place Alro in the top of the aluminium smelters with the lowest specific consumption inside the European Union.

 

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 a 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 European Union (i.e. Hungary, Poland, Greece, Germany and Romania). Alro also exports to the U.S.A 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 to the international standards for flat rolled products.

The contents of the website www.alro.roare not incorporated into, and do not form part of, this announcement.