Aughinish Alumina’s pre-tax profits in 2018 shrank YoY despite a 15% growth in revenues

A recent report shows the revenues of Aughinish Alumina refinery in 2018, ended on December 31, increased by 15 per cent over the year to stand at $757.1 million (€684 million) in spite of the US Treasury sanctions imposed on Aughinish’s parent company Rusal. During the time of the sanctions, the US treasury department had permitted the Rusal group to continue operating at Aughinish Alumina by issuing it with a number of general licenses.

But despite the higher revenues, pre-tax profits of the company decreased by 19 per cent to $40.9 million in 2018, primary because of the increased operating costs by about 18 per cent from $606.53 million in 2017 to $715.2 million. Staff costs also grew from $52.8 million to $57 million that includes directors’ remuneration of $1.36 million.

Directors say the company is working in conjunction with its parent company, Rusal plc, to prepare own bauxite which will replace more expensive third-party supplied bauxite.

The principle activity of Aughinish Alumina is the production and sale of alumina. The production in the entire year stood at 1.81 million tonnes. In H1 2019, the production at the refinery came in at 949,000 tonnes.

Total alumina production at Rusal stood at 3.85 million tonnes in the first half of 2019, compared with 3.81 million tonnes in the same period last year. This marks an increase of 0.9 per cent year-on-year.

Considering the alumina production at Aughinish in H1 2019, the refinery’s output in the entire year is expected to come in at 1.89 million tonnes. This indicates a potential growth of 5 per cent year-on-year in Aughinish’s alumina production at the end of 2019.