Caspian Energy (CE): Many oil and gas majors are now seeking to diversify its business. What has Norsk Hydro lost, and what has the Company acquired after refusing from its upstream business in favor of aluminum recycling?
Svein Richard Brandtzæg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Norsk Hydro ASA: Norsk Hydro went into this century as a diversified industrial conglomerate with a hundred years history, with large operations in oil, gas and renewable energy, fertilizer, polymers, and the light metal aluminium. Since 2003 Hydro has demerged and listed the fertilizer business Yara (now being the world's largest producer and marketer of mineral fertilizers), sold its polymers business and in 2008 merged its oil and gas operations with Norway-based Statoil.
Going forward as a pure play aluminium company, Hydro has expanded and developed along the entire aluminium value chain. We have operations from bauxite mining, alumina refining and captive hydropower production, via primary aluminium production and value-added products (extrusion ingot, foundry alloys, sheet ingot and wire rod, in addition to rolled and extruded products), to aluminium recycling, by which we recover the energy and value from used aluminium products.
Building the primary aluminium plant Qatalum in 50/50 partnership with Qatar Petroleum in 2007 (now a 1st quartile metal plant), acquiring the upstream aluminium assets from the Brazilian company Vale in 2011, and merging our extrusion activities to form the world’s leading aluminium solutions provider Sapa, owned 50/50 with our JV partner Orkla, have been transforming transactions. Today Hydro is a first tier global aluminium company, making what we regard as the metal of the future.
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