The latest quarter results were positively impacted by a mark-to-market gain on forward contracts of $4.2M related primarily to aluminium put options. Cost of sales for the quarter included a $13.5M charge for lower of cost or market inventory adjustments.
Sales for the third quarter rose to $345.6M from $279.2M year earlier. Shipments of primary aluminium for the quarter were 150.832t, compared with 147.216t in the prior year quarter.
Sales in the first nine months of 2011 were $1,038bn compared with $852.4M in the same period of 2010.
Shipments of primary aluminium for the first nine months of 2011 were 446.493t compared with 436.472t for the comparable 2010 period.
Logan W Kruger, President and CEO said: "During the quarter, we continued on a steady pace to return the Hawesville smelter to stable operations. We expect these efforts will produce improvement in production and shipments in the fourth quarter. Grundartangi's performance has been excellent, with record production and strong safety results and operating efficiencies.
“Lastly, discussions continued in several key areas of the Helguvik project, and we are awaiting a decision from the arbitration panel regarding our contractual dispute with one of the power suppliers.”
Century Aluminium Company owns primary aluminium capacity in the USA and Iceland. Century’s corporate offices are located in Monterey, California.