Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has posted a net income of BD43.3 million ($115.2 million) for the first half of 2017 versus BD20.5 million ($54.5 million) for the same period in 2016, marking an increase of 111 per cent.

The company generated a net income of BD17.7 million ($47.1 million) in Q2 2017, up by 8.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY), compared to BD16.3 million ($43. 4 million) in Q2 2016.

Alba’s top-line and bottom-line for the second quarter and first-half of 2017 were primarily driven by higher LME prices (an increase of 22 per cent YoY) and favourable management performance.

The company reported total sales of BD179.3 million ($476.9 million) in the second quarter of 2017, versus BD165.7 million ($441 million) for the same period in 2016, up 8 per cent YoY. Total sales in the first half of 2017 stood at BD369.7 million ($983.3 million), up by 15 per cent YoY, versus BD322.2 million ($856.8 million) in H1 2016.

Murray: exceptional results

Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al Khalifa, chairman of Alba, said: “Alba improved its bottom-line despite the impact of the power outage.  I would like to thank our employees and contractors for their continuous efforts in safely restoring Line 5 pots to normal operations.”

Alba’s chief executive officer, Tim Murray added: “We delivered exceptional results taking into account the strain that Line 5 recovery put on our operations.  I would like to thank all the employees and contractors for their resilience on setting a new industry benchmark on recovery.»

 The company has managed to close the first half of 2017 with a sales volume of 453,089 metric tonnes, down by 3.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY), with the recovery process of reduction Line 5 underway.

The company also reported that production volume reached 453,395 metric tonnes, down by 4.5 per cent YoY.

Additionally, sales and production volumes for the second quarter of 2017 topped 210,157 metric tonnes and 204,617 metric tonnes respectively, it said.

Alba’s value-added sales averaged 61 per cent of total shipments in Q2 2017 versus 55 per cent for the same period in 2016 and 58 per cent for the first half of 2017 compared to 54 per cent in H1 2016.

Alba experienced a power station outage on April 5 that resulted in a temporary loss of power in all five reduction lines for approximately three hours. Reduction Lines 1-4 started operating at normal levels immediately, while Alba said Reduction Line 5 was partially running and is expected to be fully operational in Q3 2017.

The company estimated that the incident will result in a loss of 3 to 5 percent of its total production for 2017.

Earlier, it closed the first tranche of  $700 million Export Credit Agency (ECA) covered facilities to finance the company’s Power Station 5 and Power Distribution System as part of the Line 6 expansion project.

The facilities are made up of $310.4 million SERV Guaranteed Export Credit with an interest margin of 90 basis point per annum over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR); EUR314.3 million ($358 million) SERV Guaranteed Export Credit with an interest margin of 65 basis point per annum over the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR);  and EUR50 million Euler Hermes Guaranteed Export Credit with an interest margin of 55 basis point per annum over EURIBOR. The SERV-covered facilities have a 15-year tenor wherein the principal amount is to be repaid over 12-year period. The Euler Hermes-covered facility has 14-year tenor wherein the principal amount is to be repaid over a 12-year period.

Expected to start metal production in early 2019, Line 6 Expansion Project will boost the per-annum production by 540,000 metric tonnes upon its full ramp-up, bringing Alba’s total production capacity to 1,500,000 metric tonnes per annum to make Alba the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter.