Century Aluminum CFO Details Mount Holly Restart, $300M EBITDA Run-Rate and Oklahoma Smelter Plan

Key Points

• Century says current spot prices imply roughly $300 million quarterly run-rate adjusted EBITDA (about $80M above its $225M guide), and the Mount Holly restart — adding 50,000 tons to reach ~220,000 tons — should pay back before year-end and be "very, very" profitable.
• Century and Emirates Global Aluminium will partner (EGA 60% / Century 40%) to build a 750,000‑ton Inola, Oklahoma smelter, with a $500 million DOE grant secured and power, engineering/capex and financing milestones targeted this year ahead of a Q4 final investment decision.
• The company sold the idled Hawesville site to TeraWulf for $200 million cash while retaining a 6.8% interest and a put option, and says insurance proceeds plus a $175 million Section 45X receivable have it at its net debt targets as it prioritizes organic investments.

Century Aluminum NASDAQ: CENX Chief Financial Officer Peter outlined the company’s operating footprint, near-term earnings sensitivity to aluminum and power prices, and progress on several strategic initiatives, including the restart of idled U.S. capacity, a planned new smelter in Oklahoma, and the recently announced sale of its Hawesville site.

Operating footprint and capacity plans

Peter said Century is currently the largest primary aluminum producer in the U.S., with assets positioned in what he described as two of the “shortest markets” globally: the U.S. and Europe. The company operates two U.S. smelters—Sebree, Kentucky, and Mount Holly, South Carolina—and also owns the Grundartangi smelter in Iceland, which he said produces 300,000 tons of primary aluminum for the European market.

In the U.S., Peter said Century has 450,000 tons of capacity once Mount Holly is “up and running,” and noted the company is moving toward 1.4 million tons of nameplate capacity. He also highlighted the company’s upstream exposure in Jamaica through bauxite mining and an alumina refinery producing 1.2 million tons annually.

Mount Holly restart and return of full utilization

Peter said the Mount Holly expansion is scheduled to begin in April, with Century planning to restart the last 25% of idled capacity and ramp it through the second quarter. He said the restart involves 50,000 tons of incremental volume, bringing Mount Holly to about 220,000 tons of annual production, with completion expected by the end of June.

He also said a line at the Iceland smelter is expected to come back up “around the middle of summer” following transformer failures. With both initiatives, he said Century expects to be at roughly 770,000 tons of annualized capacity on current production and described this as the first time in nearly 10 years that all operating assets would be running at 100%.

Asked about the incremental EBITDA contribution from the Mount Holly restart, Peter said the company had not specifically guided to the figure. However, he reiterated prior comments from a November call that the payback would occur before year-end, and said that given higher aluminum prices “today,” he would expect an even faster payback. He characterized the incremental tons as the “most profitable” and the project as “very, very high profitable” with a high return.

Quarterly EBITDA sensitivity to aluminum and power

Discussing near-term financial expectations, Peter referenced the company’s “next 90 days” outlook and said Century expected $225 million of adjusted EBITDA at realized prices, noting that Century’s revenue typically reflects a lag to current aluminum spot prices. He then walked through a spot-price sensitivity framework using current pricing levels he cited, including global aluminum prices of $3,100 on the LME, a U.S. Midwest price of $1.04 per pound, and a European premium of $365 per ton.

Using Century’s published sensitivities (based on production and included in the appendix of its earnings materials), he said those spot prices would imply an incremental $55 million uplift versus the guide. He also cited a first-quarter headwind of about $20 million from a two-week temporary power price spike tied to Winter Storm Finn, noting that Sebree is the company’s only smelter with market power exposure. Based on forward power pricing, he said a normalized quarter could add another roughly $25 million uplift. In total, Peter said the two adjustments would add about $80 million to the first-quarter guide, implying a roughly $300 million quarterly run-rate adjusted EBITDA at spot prices, before the Mount Holly expansion.

Tariffs, demand, and imports

On the demand environment, Peter said demand was “really strong,” particularly in the U.S., and stated that tariffs were “certainly working” and had not hurt demand. He said Section 232 tariffs have been in place since 2018 and that Century has seen aluminum prices strengthen over that period.

He also pointed to global supply discipline, referencing China’s “45 million cap,” and said Century was not seeing excess supply coming into the U.S. market. On the durability of the tariff regime, Peter said Century believes Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs are “here to stay,” noting they persisted through both the Trump and Biden administrations and have “lived their day in court.” He added that recent discussions about other tariffs and court rulings were not related to Section 232. Peter said a key difference currently is that exemptions have been removed, and he tied the move from 25% to 50% to the current price environment.

Oklahoma smelter partnership, government support, and Hawesville sale

Peter reiterated Century’s recently announced partnership with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to develop a new smelter in Inola, Oklahoma, which he said would be the largest aluminum smelter in the Western world at 750,000 tons. Under the structure described, EGA would own 60% and Century would own 40%. Peter said the company chose to partner with EGA because it viewed EGA as a premier technology provider and wanted to “de-risk the project” and ensure it gets built.

On next steps, he outlined three milestones the company is working through:

• Finalizing the power contract
• Completing engineering work to determine capital expenditure, with Bechtel involved
• Arranging project financing

Peter said Century has a $500 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and is evaluating additional DOE and other government opportunities for attractive borrowing rates. He said the company expects the three milestones to wrap up within the year and is targeting a final investment decision with EGA in the fourth quarter.

Peter also discussed Century’s sale of the Hawesville site—an idled asset since 2022 amid high power prices following the Ukraine-Russia war—to TeraWulf, which he described as an HPC AI data center company. He said Century received $200 million in cash and will retain a 6.8% interest in the fully completed data center. Regarding the value of that minority interest, he said the company did not guide to a specific figure but stated it should be “in excess of the upfront contribution.” He also described a put option that could provide a floor value one year after energization of the completed data center, and said the option could be evaluated around 2028, retained, or monetized in other ways. He linked the structure to “liquidity assurance” that could support funding for a new U.S. smelter.

On capital allocation, Peter said Century ended the year just short of its net debt target due to timing mismatches related to the Iceland equipment failure, with lost margin followed by later insurance proceeds. He said that, with first-quarter insurance proceeds, a Section 45X receivable of $175 million, and the Hawesville proceeds, the company is “certainly at” its net debt targets today, with an update expected on the first-quarter call. He added that Century is prioritizing organic investments including the Mount Holly expansion (about $45 million) and multi-year projects at Jamalco, including a new power generator beginning in April that he said will lower costs and help move Jamalco toward the second quartile of the cost curve.

About Century Aluminum NASDAQ: CENX

Century Aluminum Company is a primary aluminum producer that develops and operates smelters designed to supply low-carbon, high-purity aluminum products to a range of industrial and commercial markets. Established in 1995, the company has grown to become a significant North American aluminum producer with an expanding international footprint. Century Aluminum is headquartered in the United States and is focused on energy-efficient operations and cost management.

The company's core operations include three primary aluminum smelting facilities located in Hawesville, Kentucky; Mount Holly, South Carolina; and Grundartangi, Iceland.

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