ALRO S.A. accepts Emergency Ordinance to compensate indirect emission costs aligned with energy prices

Alro S.A. has decided to abide by the Emergency Ordinance (EO) to compensate for the indirect emission costs embedded in the electricity price. The Romanian vertically integrated aluminium producer is keen on implementing the EO to compete with its fellow European counterparts.

This support scheme was created maintaining protocols laid by the European Commission Guidelines on definite State aid measures in the context of the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme post-2021. The EO has been formulated to target the sectors that can face the trauma of rechannelling CO2 emissions owing to substantial indirect costs auxiliary to the energy price.

Other Romanian consumers won't face any difficulty if the EO is implemented on heavy energy-intensive units like the Alro S.A., which single-handedly is one of the largest integrated aluminium producers in Europe.

The European Union (EU) takes care of the compensational funds and the money collected by Romania by auctioning the greenhouse emission certificates belonging to the EU legislation of the country.

Marian NĂSTASE, Chairman of the Board of Directors, ALRO, exclaimed: "The adoption of the EO is a normal step towards levelling the field between Romanian companies and their competitors in the EU that benefit from the provisions of the European Commission Guidelines as early as March this year. We would like to express our thanks to the Romanian Government for the efforts done in the implementation of this scheme both at the European level and at the national level. Given the steep costs with electricity that brought many companies close to shutting down and forced others to reduce their activity significantly, this is a welcomed decision that needs swift operationalisation",

"The electricity costs impacted our activity more and more over the past years, reaching unsustainable levels over the past year. However, we took all possible measures to mitigate the costs and continue our business, invest in critical equipment, and maintain our market share locally and internationally. We believe this EO is an acknowledgement of both the importance of industrial companies for the Romanian economy and the efforts of those companies to continue their activity despite the several crises we went through over the past years", said Marian NĂSTASE in conclusion.

Due to the COVID outbreak, major companies have curtailed their production or capacity, whereas ALRO SA has never failed to hold a great level of magnitude in the field of aluminium production. Though recently, the company was forced to uphold drastic measures like the shutting down of three electrolysis pots and its alumina production facility in Tulcea.

Each of these decisions was taken in the aftermath of significant rises in energy costs that endangered the existence of European companies and resulted in the shutting down of major organisations throughout the entire European civilisation.