The company had reported a profit of $63M for the 2009 financial year and blamed higher raw material and energy costs for the loss.
EBITDA was $317M – a 6% increase over the 2009 figure while there was an increase of 58% in the total amount of goods sold from $1.263bn in 2009 to $1.992bn in 2010.
Sales of sales of primary aluminium stood at 884kt in 2010, while sales of processed products reached 110kt, out of which 737kt of primary was for the Chinese segment and 147kt of primary was for its Romanian segment.
·The year also saw the company take over bauxite mining operations in Sierra Leone and the first full year of operation of the alumina refinery in Alum Tulcea, Romania, following the completion of an upgrading programme in 2009.
In addition, the commissioning of the 80kt/y, 400kA potlines in Linfeng in June 2010, followed by the commissioning of another 80kt/y in January 2011 took place.
Vitaliy Machitski, chairman of the Board, said: “Securing adequate sources of raw materials is a key to success in the economical environment and we continuously face new challenges in this respect, in our operations in Europe, Africa and Asia. Vimetco is currently engaged in exploration and prospecting for new sources of bauxite.
"Thus we established Vimetco Ghana (Bauxite) Ltd., a 100% owned subsidiary of Vimetco, which, in early 2011, was granted prospecting rights for two potential bauxite mining areas in Ghana, Africa.”