Alcoa’s full-year 2022 revenue grows 2.5% Y-o-Y to $12,451 million amid volatile prices and energy supply challenge

On Wednesday, January 18, Alcoa Corporation announced its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 results, reporting a strong balance sheet. The organization worked hard to combat challenging market conditions throughout the year, like volatile alumina and aluminium prices and energy supply shortage.

In 2022, Alcoa generated revenue of $12,451 million, up by 2.46 per cent from $12,152 million in 2021, driven by higher alumina and aluminium prices and higher premiums for value-added products. However, the revenue in Q4 stood 6.59 per cent lower at $2,663 million than $2,851 million during the same period last year.

Alcoa’s adjusted net income was just a reverse case. In the entire year, it decreased by 31.38 per cent Y-o-Y from $1,297 million or $6.83 per share to $890 million or 4.83 per share; but grew in Q4 from $60 million or $0.33 per share to $123 million or $0.70 per share.

Net loss attributable to Alcoa was $374 million or $2.12 per share in Q4 2022 versus $746 million or $4.17 per share a year ago. In the full-year, the net loss was $102 million or $0.57 per share, down from the prior year’s net loss of $429 million or $2.26 per share. Higher aluminium and alumina prices in the first half of 2022 yielded $1 billion in net income attributable to Alcoa despite high raw materials, energy, and production costs.

Adjusted EBITDA excluding special items decreased 20 per cent through 2022 to $2,224 million, primarily due to higher costs for raw materials and energy. In Q4, it plunged from $210 million to $29 million annually for the same reason.

Alcoa ended the year with a cash balance of $1.47 billion, including restricted cash of $111 million. Cash inflow from operations was $822 million.

Alcoa’s third-party alumina shipments decreased 5 per cent in 2022 on a year-on-year basis as the refineries produced lower volumes for sale. In Q4, shipments dropped 2 per cent because of the partial curtailment at the San Ciprian refinery in Spain.

Alcoa President and CEO Roy Harvey said: “We are beginning 2023 with a clear set of priorities, building on the strategic work we’ve progressed over these past several years that has provided a strong balance sheet. Last year, global turbulence negatively influenced costs for energy and raw materials, and we saw significant variance on product pricing between the first and second halves of 2022.”

He added, "We are taking actions to further improve, and we have the experience, rigor, and skill to drive excellence across our global operations with disciplined cost management," Harvey said. "We will address current challenges while maintaining our future focus, as the long-term outlook for our industry remains strong. Aluminum is rising in importance as a material of choice, and we are excited about the development of our transformative technologies that have the potential to reinvent the industry.”