Alro Group invested USD 77 mln in energy efficiency since 2005

Aluminium producer Alro has invested over USD 77 million for energy efficiency, over the past six years. Investments targeted both the primary and processed aluminum production processes, as well as the alumna refinery.

Alro, which is the largest electricity consumer in Romania, has invested USD 8 million last year for efficiency programmes at the smelter, by replacing energy intensive compressors and upgrading burners in its furnaces, which lead to a reduction in electricity and gas consumption.The company also modernized the industrial water and drainage system. Another USD 7 million was put for energy efficiency at the alumna producer, Alum Tulcea.

“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 tone of aluminum helped us partially offset the increase in energy prices,” said Gheorghe Dobra, CEO of Vimetco.

Since 2005, Alro put USD 27 million for increasing the electricity power intensity and another USD 26 million for new power transformers.

These investments allowed the company to increase the aluminum output from 240,000 tones in 2005 to the peak of 288,000 tones in 2008, without additional energy consumption.

Alro is the largest aluminum producer in Central and Eastern Europe, controlled by Russian Vimetco N.V.