00:00Really solid results this morning. Talk us through what the drivers were and whether this was actually led by pricing
00:06or by volumes.
00:08So in general pricing plays a big role. Yeah. Aluminium is in high demand at the moment and we've got
00:14aluminium prices at close to historically high levels.
00:18Yeah. So that contributes a lot to our bottom line at the end of the day. How do you see
00:22the outlook for aluminium prices the rest of 2026.
00:24How do you see the market dynamics here? It's good. We have a situation now where customers are demanding more
00:31and more aluminium, especially since the price of copper is very high.
00:35That's really the material that people are positive to. The good thing with aluminium is that when the price between
00:42copper and aluminium becomes large enough, you start seeing substitution.
00:46So we're seeing a lot of customers that used to use copper now moving on to aluminium, which is driving
00:52demand and pushing prices.
00:53And how much of that is back on, say, you know, production limits or supply limits reached in China? How
00:59much of a knock-on effect is that having on the market?
01:01Big. It is big. Every like bull rally of aluminium historically has usually been killed by oversupplies in China. Now
01:07with the 45 million ton ceiling, this has changed the structural outlook quite a bit.
01:12It's changed the game. How have tariffs affected the industry?
01:15So in general, I think the industry has been able to cope better than many expected. The price in the
01:22U.S. has increased just as much as the tariffs have.
01:25And we are selling more and more metal into the U.S. to continue to meet their undersupply.
01:30Yeah. So have you had to change anything operationally within the company to work around the Section 232 tariffs imposed
01:39by the Trump administration?
01:40Not really. What we have been able to do is redirect more volumes to the U.S. As you know,
01:47some of Canadian volumes that used to go to U.S. are now finding their way to Europe, which opens
01:52the room for more metal from the U.S.
01:55So still a big growth market for you.
01:57It's the biggest growth market. And that's why we're investing in a potential new smelter in the U.S. also.
02:03So I wanted to ask you about that. So the plans for, I believe, the smelter is in Oklahoma.
02:07Yes.
02:07Talk us through what you're envisioning there.
02:09This is an extremely exciting project. It's the first smelter to be built in the U.S. in nearly 50
02:15years.
02:16It's a 750,000-ton smelter, which will double the local production in the U.S. And it's based on
02:22UAE technology.
02:23And how much of a game changer is it going to be, not just for your company, but also for
02:29U.S. production as well?
02:30It will be big for U.S. production. As I said, it will nearly double the production in the U
02:36.S.
02:36It will create a lot of employment, a thousand direct people. But the big effects when you build a smelter
02:42is all the indirect employment.
02:44Yesterday, we announced an agreement that one of the big downstream customers is now looking to create a facility right
02:50next to our smelter also.
02:52Okay. I'm going to take you on slightly different tact. What is the latest on talks with Guinea about a
02:58bauxite supply agreement?
03:00I know back in 2025, the mining license that you had actually got canceled.
03:06But there are reports that you're back having discussions with them about some form of a supply agreement.
03:11Can you give us an update on how those discussions are going and whether it's something we can see at
03:16some point in the future?
03:17So as it stands today, as you've seen in our results, we have written off our investments in Guinea.
03:23We are not taking any volume out of Guinea. And we've replaced this with volumes from Ghana, from Australia, from
03:30Brazil and from other regions.
03:32So there's no volume flowing out of Guinea to us.
03:35Okay. Do you think that at a company level, this whole experience with Guinea has made you reevaluate some of
03:43the jurisdictions that you're operating in from a strategic standpoint?
03:46I think in general, what we're doing is we're ensuring we have a more diversified source of raw material going
03:53forward.
03:53So the regions in Africa will still continue to be part of our sourcing as we're doing with Ghana now.
04:01But we're also bringing in some from Australia and some from Brazil.
04:04Yeah. In general, how do you see? I mean, we spoke about the geographic potential in the U.S., but
04:11where would you say are the bright spots around the world for your business operations?
04:15So since we produce a lot of the metal in the UAE and the demand in the UAE is limited
04:22to a certain extent, we need to base ourselves on international export.
04:26And our two biggest export markets is Europe and the U.S. because they are quite short on aluminium.
04:32That's why we're growing in both regions. We're building a smelter in the U.S.
04:36We've bought a recycler in the U.S. and we bought a recycler in Europe.
04:39And that recycler in Europe, we are now sixfold increasing the capacity to continue to meet the demand of European
04:45customers.
04:46Okay. And I've got to ask you, there's been a lot of speculation about a potential liquidity event.
04:52Could we expect an IPO this year? 2026 is going to be the year.
04:55So I will not speculate on any form of IPO. That is a topic for our shareholders.
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