Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world, has registered a BD 4.9 million ($13 million) net profit for the third quarter from a net loss of BD13 million last year on the back of higher sales to Saudi Arabia.

Announcing the results on Wednesday, Alba said its net income for the first nine months surged by 50 per cent to BD66.1 million from BD43.9 million last year on the back of strong operational performance.

The company's sales increased by 4.2 per cent year-on-year thanks to a strong Saudi demand while production rose by 4.7 per cent driven by strong overall operational & cost performance.

Its nine month-period sales soared to BD565.9 million ($1.505 billion) from last year's BD554.8 million registering a two per cent growth mainly due to higher premiums and overall sales volume.

According to Alba, the third quarter sales rose by 7 per cent to reach BD183.3 million compared to BD171.9 million last year.

The aluminium giant pointed out that despite lower LME prices its sales and net income registered solid growth.

The aluminium cash prices at the London Metal Exchange dropped by 7.3 per cent in the third quarter with an average cash price of $1,781 mt versus $1,922 mt last year.

Also the company witnessed a strong increase in physical premiums (over 48 per cent YoY), while the value-added products accounted for 65 per cent of total shipments for the period versus 66 per cent last year.

Commenting on the performance, the Alba board chairman Mahmood Hashim Al Kooheji said: “Alba’s focus on Operational Excellence initiatives has steered the company to deliver on its targets, maintain its competitive position and improve its bottom line."
 
Lauding the entire Alba team for its efforts to improve overall safety performance, Al Kooheji said, "We believe that a strong safety performance is linked directly to financial performance."

In his comments, CEO Tim Murray said Alba continued to achieve positive results even as most of the industry was struggling.

"Alba has been able to leverage our continuous improvement culture as a way to deliver results to the bottom line. Momentum continues to build and we are confident we will exceed the 2012 production record," he added.-TradeArabia News Service