Alcoa expects global aluminum consumption to rise in 2021 with growing demand and tighter supply balancing the overall market.
The company targets its aluminum shipment at 2.7-2.8mn mt in the full year of 2021 and has forecasted alumina shipments at 13.9-14mn mt through the year.
In the first quarter of the year, the global aluminum producer expects weaker aluminum business due to rising alumina costs and other market uncertainties though its alumina segment is expected to perform at par with the first quarter of 2020 because of lower bauxite prices, which might be offset by higher energy costs.
In 2020, the company’s third-party shipments increased by 5pc compared with the previous year. Alcoa attributed the rise to operations resuming at its ABI smelter in Quebec. Its alumina third-party shipments also rose by 2pc in 2020 from the previous year.
In Q4 2020, the Pittsburgh-headquartered producer’s third-party aluminum shipment volumes dropped by 4pc compared to the same quarter in 2019 because of the workers’ protest in San Ciprian, which blocked close to 50,000mt of aluminum shipment. Its third-party alumina shipments also fell by 9pc in the fourth quarter compared with Q4 2019.
Alcoa’s 2020 revenue dropped to $9.2bn compared to $10.4bn in 2019 and fell to $2.34bn in Q4 2020 from $2.43bn in the same prior-year quarter. However, the company’s revenue increased from $2.36bn reported in Q3 2020.
The aluminum maker’s adjusted EBITDA in 2020 dropped to $1.1bn from $1.6bn in 2019. However, its adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2020 rose to $361mn from $346mn in the same prior-year quarter and from $284mn in Q3 2020.