Alcoa loses 211 million in first quarter

The multinational Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum producer, reported negative results for the first quarter of 2023, with a significant drop in relation to the profits recorded during the same period of the previous year, which amounted to 469 million dollars (428 million euros). This represents a net loss for attributable profit of 231 million dollars (211 million euros).

Despite suffering a significant drop in the last three months of the year, with a loss of US$395 million (360 million euros), the Pittsburgh corporation reported a sequential improvement in its quarterly results.

Alcoa, the aluminum company, explained that the first quarter had benefited from high aluminum and alumina prices, as well as low energy costs in Europe. On the other hand, it should also be noted that there was no recurrence to a tax charge related to deferred taxes of Alcoa Alumínio in Brazil for the fourth quarter of 2021.

The company suffered a partial loss because it had to pay some US$149 million (136 million euros) for the restructuring, including US$101 million (92 million euros) related to the permanent closure of Intalco and US$47 million (43 million euros) for certain obligations under the updated agreement for the Spanish San Ciprián smelter.

During the first quarter of 2023, the total revenue of the multinational Alcoa fell considerably to US$2,670 million (2,436 million euros). In addition, the company’s costs and expenses increased by 12.6% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching a figure of close to 2.85 billion dollars (2.601 billion euros).

Alcoa’s board member, Roy Harvey, reported that the company was making good progress in ensuring the stability of its operations. However, Terpil, an auxiliary of Alcoa San Cibrao’s Alumina plant, is preparing an ERTE for its workforce, which amounts to  52 workers.

The fate of some 500 workers at the Alumina plant is not guaranteed, which is not the case for their colleagues at the Aluminum plant. The latter will keep their jobs as long as operations at the metal plant have restarted by the end of 2025. Throughout this year, the U.S. multinational expects total shipments of alumina and aluminum to remain unchanged at between 12.7 and 12.9 million metric tons, and between 2.5 and 2.6 million metric tons, respectively.