En+ sees profit fall a fifth on aluminium price slide
Metals firm En+ saw its net profit drop 22.1 per cent in 2020, dragged down by lower commodities prices and foreign exchange headwinds.
Although the Anglo-Russian firm is not intending to pay a dividend for the past year, it is hoping to resume payouts over the coming year.
It added that it had seen an improved performance in its end markets over the first two months of this year.
Profit at the FTSE 250 firm fell from $1.3bn to $1bn, while revenue dropped from $11.8bn to $10.4bn, En+ said this morning.
Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said that its operating performance had been broadly stable in 2020, with production volumes unchanged year-on-year.
En+ is the world’s largest producer of aluminium. It said that it expected demand for the construction metal to grow 5.0-6.0 per cent this year.
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Executive chair Greg Barker said: “2020 was a year unlike any other, yet despite the huge challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the En+ Group produced robust results against a backdrop of volatile prices and fluctuating economic trends.
“This is testament to the resilience and agility of our vertically integrated business model, but most of all to the remarkable resilience of our employees.
“Despite the continuing uncertainty as markets recover at different rates around the world, aluminium markets showed improving dynamics as the effect of the pandemic lessened over the second half of 2020, with a strong price recovery in the early part of 2021.
“We are confident in both the long and the short-term drivers for demand for low carbon aluminium across a diverse range of end use markets.”