Rusal Aughinish posts pretax losses of €7.68m

Rusal Aughinish plunged into the red last year recording pretax losses of $10.4 million (€7.68 million).

Revenue at the Shannon estuary-based alumina refinery dipped by $24 million or 2.5 per cent from $610.57 million to $586 million in the 12 months to the end of last December.

The principal activity of the company is the production and sale of alumina and separate figures provided by Aughinish Alumina to the Environmental Protection Agency confirm the output at the refinery was 1.924 million tonnes of alumina hydrate last year – a 0.1 per cent increase over 2011 levels.

The plant extracts alumina from bauxite. About 70 per cent of the bauxite comes from Guinea with the remainder coming from Brazil.

Smelting
The finished product, alumina, is exported for further processing through smelting to aluminium metal. The pretax loss recorded last year follows the $4.9 million pretax profits of 2011 – a negative swing of $15.3 million. The loss came ahead of a shake-up at board level at Limerick Alumina Refinery with three directors resigning and another four appointed this year.

At the end of December last, the company had accumulated profits of $207.1 million – the Aughinish Alumina refinery has been valued at $1.2 billion by its Russian parent, United Company Rusal. The Russian company is controlled by oligarch Oleg Deripaska and it purchased Aughinish Alumina from Swiss trading firm Glencore in 2007.

Last year, the Rusal group recorded worldwide revenues of $10.8 billion. The figures show the numbers employed last year at Aughinish remained static at 450 with staff costs decreasing by 9 per cent from $50.2 million to $45.5 million.

Numbers employed
A breakdown of the numbers employed at the refinery show 163 professional/management positions; 165 operators and 122 craft workers.

The pretax profit includes a non-cash depreciation cost of $27.9 million last year. The firm also recorded an actuarial loss of $12.49 million on its defined benefit pension scheme. The future of the alumina refinery at Aughinish was secured in 2011 until 2030 at least after the company commissioned a 195 acre development with the capacity to hold over 17 million tones of bauxite residue or “red mud”.

The filings to the Companies Registration Office show remuneration to directors last year decreased from $1.7 million to $670,000.