Aurubis capex plans include added US capacity

Germany-based copper producer and recycler Aurubis AG has listed a doubling of capacity at its under-construction smelter in Richmond, Georgia, among its capital expenditure (capex) plans for the current fiscal year.

Aurubis says it achieved operating earnings before taxes (EBT) of  532 million euros ($565 million) in its fiscal year 2021/22, which closed at the end of this September. For the upcoming 2022/2023 fiscal year, the firm sees somewhat narrower profits in the 400 million euros ($425 million) to 500 million euros ($531 million) range, which would represent a decline in EBT of from 6 percent to 24 percent.

The overall profitable conditions have prompted Aurubis to say it is moving forward with several capital expenditure (capex) plans it has announced earlier this decade, and it announced three additional capex projects.

“The company continues to consistently implement its ‘Driving Sustainable Growth’ strategy,” Aurubis says. The firm cites “examples such as the recycling project ASPA (“innovative recycling of metals from residues”) and BOB (increase in recycling capacity for the important industrial metals nickel and copper) at the two Belgian locations, plus the United States plant Aurubis Richmond in Georgia, all of which are currently being implemented.”

Aurubis decided yesterday on three further strategic projects with an investment volume of around 530 million euros ($563 million). The first involves investing to expand the modular recycling system at the U.S. site in Georgia. With a second recycling module, Aurubis will double its processing capacities at the Georgia location. “Further investment adjustments for infrastructure requirements and inflation were also approved for the ongoing project,” the company says.

In Germany, the Complex Recycling Hamburg (CRH) project will now include “extensive investments in the processing capacity of complex recycling materials and intermediate products at the group's headquarters in northern Germany. CRH will continue to optimize material flows at the Hamburg site and form the basis for additional strategic projects in the plant.”

The third newly announced expenditure concerns an expansion of an existing solar park at the Aurubis site in Pirdop, Bulgaria.

Looking back at the Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022, fiscal year, the company says it benefited from “a significantly higher metal result with higher metal prices, especially for industrial metals such as copper, tin and nickel.” The former Metallo facilities that are now part of the Aurubis portfolio have increased its presence in the tin and nickel markets.

“Higher refining charges for other recycling materials and a very good operating performance, especially at the Aurubis site in Pirdop, ensured the strong overall result," Aurubis adds.

“As the most efficient and sustainable smelter network in the world, we have the metallurgical expertise and offer the best process and recycling solutions to recover strategically necessary future metals for the circular economy,” Aurubis CEO Roland Harings says.

Aurubis says it is “very well positioned—financially and operationally,” and that it “remains optimistic for the new 2022/23 financial year, despite the general economic slowdown and higher burdens from rising energy prices.”