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CENX

Century AluminumC
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2026-06-02
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2026-05-29
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Earnings documents stored for CENX.

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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-29

Dow Jones Futures Rise As Dell, NetApp Surge On Earnings; Oil Falls On U.S.-Iran Deal Hopes

Investor's Business Daily

The stock market rose to fresh highs Thursday on a reported interim U.S.-Iran deal. Dell soared overnight on earnings.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-26

Century Aluminum (CENX) Valuation Check After Sector Rally And Brighter Earnings Sentiment

Simply Wall St.

Find your next quality investment with Simply Wall St's easy and powerful screener, trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Century Aluminum (CENX) is back on investors’ radar after a sector-wide rally in aluminum producers, combined with brighter sentiment around its earnings outlook, even as some investors question valuation and insider selling trends. See our latest analysis for Century Aluminum. At a share price of $65.05, Century Aluminum has seen a 7.6% 1 day share price return and a 58.9% year to date share price return. The 1 year total shareholder return of about 3x signals strong momentum that contrasts with recent concerns around valuation and insider selling. If you are looking for other ways to position around metals and infrastructure, this could be a good moment to check out 8 top copper producer stocks So with Century Aluminum trading at $65.05 and sitting about 23% below the average analyst price target, yet flagged by some metrics as richly valued, are you looking at an opening to buy or a stock already pricing in future growth? Analysts' most followed narrative pegs Century Aluminum's fair value at $80 per share, compared with the latest close at $65.05, framing the current debate around upside versus execution risk. Read the complete narrative. Want to see what is baked into that $80 fair value? The narrative leans heavily on faster top line growth, fatter margins and a much lower future earnings multiple. The narrative uses an 8.69% discount rate and ties its fair value to analyst assumptions about Century Aluminum's future revenue, earnings, and required P/E multiple. Result: Fair Value of $80 (UNDERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, that upside story leans heavily on Section 232 tariffs and firm Midwest premiums, while cost inflation or delays around Mt. Holly and the Oklahoma smelter could quickly challenge it. Find out about the key risks to this Century Aluminum narrative. With such a mixed setup around valuation, growth assumptions and policy support, it makes sense to move quickly and test the thesis against the underlying numbers yourself, starting with 4 key rewards and 2 important warning signs Do not stop your research with one stock. Broaden your watchlist now so you are not catching up after the next move is already underway. Spot potential barg...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-12

Century Aluminum Q1 Earnings Miss Estimates, Sales Rise Y/Y

Zacks

Century Aluminum Company CENX reported earnings of $3.23 per share for the first quarter of 2026. It compares favorably with the prior-year quarter’s earnings of 29 cents. Barring one-time items, adjusted earnings came in at $1.06 per share. The bottom line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.16. Adjusted EBITDA was $231.4 million, up from $78 million in the prior-year quarter. Century Aluminum Company price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Century Aluminum Company Quote The company reported net sales of $649.2 million, up 2.4% year over year. However, the figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $652.2 million. The increase in sales was driven by higher aluminum prices, which more than offset lower shipment volumes. Primary aluminum shipments were 122,865 tons, down around 27% year over year and around 12% sequentially. At the end of the quarter, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $244.1 million, up 81.9% from the previous quarter. The company forecasts second-quarter 2026 adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $315 million to $335 million, supported by higher realized LME and regional premiums, energy benefits and favorable volume/mix, partly offset by raw material costs and OPEX/other items. Shares of Century Aluminum have risen 250.3% in the past year compared with the industry’s 55.8% growth. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research CENX currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other top-ranked stocks worth a look in the basic materials space are Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. SQM, Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. IDR and Hawkins, Inc. HWKN. Sociedad is slated to report first-quarter 2026 results on May 26. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for loss is pegged at $1.78 per share, indicating 270.8% year-over-year growth. SQM has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. Idaho is expected to report first-quarter 2026 results on May 14. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at 43 cents per share, indicating 258.3% year-over-year growth. IDR sports a Zacks Rank #1 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Hawkins is scheduled to report fiscal fourth-quarter results on May 13. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HWKN’s fourth-quarter earnings is pegged at 76 cents per share. HWKN currently has a Zacks Rank #2. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can downl...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Century Aluminum Q1 Adjusted Earnings, Revenue Rise

MT Newswires

Century Aluminum (CENX) reported Q1 adjusted earnings late Thursday of $1.63 per diluted share, up f

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Century: Q1 Earnings Snapshot

Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — CHICAGO (AP) — Century Aluminum Co. (CENX) on Thursday reported profit of $337.5 million in its first quarter. On a per-share basis, the Chicago-based company said it had profit of $3.23. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $1.06 per share. The aluminum producer posted revenue of $649.2 million in the period. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CENX at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CENX

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Century Aluminum Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat

Interested in Century Aluminum Company? Here are five stocks we like better. Century says strong demand from light‑weighting and electrification, plus U.S. trade actions and Middle East supply disruptions, have widened its expected 2026 global aluminum deficit to 1.4 million tons, supporting higher prices and destocking in the U.S. and Europe. Operationally, Mount Holly has begun pot restarts and is on track to reach about 230,000 metric tons (adding more than 125 U.S. jobs) with full run‑rate expected in Q3, while Grundartangi line 2 pots are being restored and targeted to be fully back by the end of July. Century reported Q1 net income of $338 million (adjusted EBITDA $231 million), finished the quarter with $332 million cash and net debt of $220 million below target, guided Q2 adjusted EBITDA of $315–335 million with sizable spot‑price upside, and said its proposed 750,000‑ton Oklahoma smelter with EGA is advancing toward a year‑end FID with Bechtel engaged. Smelting Hot: The Mideast Conflict Sparks an Aluminum Squeeze Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) used its first-quarter 2026 earnings call to outline what management described as one of the most dynamic aluminum markets in years, while providing updates on major capacity projects in the U.S. and Iceland and progress on its proposed new smelter in Oklahoma with joint venture partner Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA). President and CEO Jesse Gary said strong global aluminum demand tied to “macro trends in light weighting and electrification” has continued into 2026 and broadened into additional end markets, including power and data infrastructure, commercial aviation, and defense manufacturing. → Berkshire Hathaway’s Record Cash Hoard: Why and What's Next? Century Aluminum: A Premier Stock for the Industrial Resurgence Gary also pointed to recent U.S. policy action affecting aluminum trade. He said the company is “already beginning to see increased value-added product demand” after President Trump’s April 2 executive order that, according to Gary, closed valuation loopholes used to circumvent Section 232 tariffs, “especially in downstream extruded products.” On the supply side, Gary said disruptions in the Middle East have tightened markets further. Century estimates roughly 2.5 million tons of Gulf production has been disrupted due to curtailments from raw material shortages linked to the closure of the Stra...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Century Aluminum Company Reports First Quarter 2026 Results

GlobeNewswire

CHICAGO, May 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ: CENX) today announced its first quarter 2026 results. First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Business Highlights Net sales of $649.2 million increased sequentially Achieved adjusted EBITDA attributable to Century of $231.4 million Received insurance proceeds totaling $83 million to date related to Iceland equipment failure Initiated expansion of last 90 pots at Mt. Holly and restart of Line 2 at Grundartangi in April 2026 Net sales for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026 increased by $15.5 million sequentially primarily driven by an increase in realized metal prices, despite lower shipments following the first full quarter of Iceland line 2 equipment failure in late October 2025 and lower third-party alumina sales. Century reported Net income attributable to Century of $337.5 million for the first quarter of 2026, a $335.7 million increase sequentially. The increase in net earnings during the first quarter of 2026 was primarily attributable to a one-time gain on sale of Hawesville of $287.9 million, a gain on insurance proceeds related to Iceland equipment failure of $33.0 million, favorable realized LME and regional premium prices, partially offset by unfavorable power price realization due to extreme winter weather in the United States and unfavorable raw material price realization. First quarter results were also impacted by $166.8 million of net exceptional items, in particular, the gains described above; $48.1 million of unrealized losses on derivative instruments, net of tax; $60.0 million related to equipment failures in Iceland, net of tax; $5.9 million related to the impact of Hurricane Melissa on Jamalco's operations; $13.3 million in emergency energy charges related to extreme winter weather at Mt. Holly; $9.4 million of share-based compensation; Mt. Holly expansion project expenses of $7.5 million and Hawesville inventory write-down of $3.3 million. Therefore, Century reported an Adjusted net income attributable to Century of $170.7 million for the first quarter of 2026, a $42.5 million increase sequentially. Adjusted EBITDA attributable to Century for the first quarter of 2026 was $231.4 million. This was an increase of $60.8 million from the prior quarter, mainly from favorable realized metal prices, sales mix and operating expenses, partially offset by unfavorable pow...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-08

Century Aluminum (CENX) Lags Q1 Earnings and Revenue Estimates

Zacks

Century Aluminum (CENX) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.06 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.16 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.28 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -8.62%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this aluminum producer would post earnings of $1.25 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.02, delivering a surprise of -98.4%. Over the last four quarters, the company has not been able to surpass consensus EPS estimates. Century, which belongs to the Zacks Metal Products - Procurement and Fabrication industry, posted revenues of $649.2 million for the quarter ended March 2026, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.46%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $633.9 million. The company has not been able to beat consensus revenue estimates over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Century shares have added about 59.8% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 7.6%. While Century has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Century was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Za...

TranscriptFY2026 Q12026-05-07

FY2026 Q1 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 66 paragraphs
Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Century Aluminum Company Q1 2026 earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Chad Rigg, Vice President, Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Chad Rigg

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Q1 conference call. I'm joined here today by Jesse Gary, Century's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Trpkovski, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared comments, we will take your questions. As a reminder, today's presentation is available on our website at www.centuryaluminum.com. We use our website as a means of disclosing material information about the company and for complying with Regulation FD. Turning to slide two, please take a moment to review the cautionary statements with respect to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures in today's discussion. With that, I'll hand the call to Jesse.

Jesse Gary

Thanks, Chad, and thanks to everyone for joining. I'll start today with a discussion of the dynamic global aluminum market and the opportunities that we see for Century going forward to provide secure supply chains into the U.S. and European markets. I'll review our Q1 operational performance, including the excellent progress we made on our Mount Holly expansion project and the restart of Potline 2 at Grundartangi. Pete will walk you through our Q1 results and Q2 outlook before I conclude the call with the latest on our new Oklahoma smelter project with EGA. Just before we get started, I'd like to thank the Century team across our sites for a strong quarter of safety performance, especially while executing major capital projects at each of Grundartangi, Jamalco, and Mount Holly. You should each be proud.

Jesse Gary

At Century, ensuring that each of our employees returns home safely at the end of their shift is our first priority. Turning to the market on page five, it is certainly obvious to all of those on the call that we find ourselves today in one of the most dynamic markets for aluminum in recent memory. Strong global aluminum demand, driven by macro trends in light weighting and electrification, have persisted into 2026 and accelerated into other sectors as demand for power and data infrastructure build-out, commercial aviation, and defense and rearmament manufacturing has increased. In the U.S. specifically, we are already beginning to see increased value-added product demand following President Trump's April 2nd, 2026 executive order that closed valuation loopholes that importers have been using to cheat the Section 232 system, especially in downstream extruded products.

Jesse Gary

We are grateful to President Trump for taking this additional action to ensure that the entire U.S. aluminum supply chain is able to grow and expand to meet our domestic national security needs with American metal. As the largest U.S. producer, Century will continue to do its part to invest in expanding and building the U.S. aluminum base, starting with our Mount Holly expansion and continuing with our Oklahoma smelter project. Back to each of those in a bit. Turning to the supply side, the importance of ensuring secure U.S. supply chains has never been so evident as today following disruptions in production in the Middle East. We estimate that approximately 2.5 million tons of production in the Gulf countries has been disrupted by either production curtailments due to raw material shortages arising from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz or direct Iranian drone and missile attacks.

Jesse Gary

We stand by our industry colleagues who have been so unfairly affected by such attacks. Note that while the large majority of Middle Eastern metal goes to the European and Asian markets, Century has been supporting our existing U.S. customers that have been impacted by the Middle East disruption through the placement of our expansion tons from Mount Holly to repair these strained supply lines and ensure our U.S. customers have access to the metal that they need. The timing of our Mount Holly restart could not be better in this regard, providing additional American metal units to the domestic market. As you can see on slide six, the Middle Eastern disruption has expanded our expected 2026 global deficit to 1.4 million tons.

Jesse Gary

Over the course of 2026, this supply deficit should lead to further destocking from global inventories, creating a healthy go-forward environment for Century in both the U.S. and Europe. Turning to page four in operations, our smelters had an excellent Q1, with strong operating performance across Grundartangi, Mount Holly, and Sebree. We are now moving into a very busy Q2 for the operations team. The strong operating performance and stability throughout our smelters enabled the timely startup of our expansion project in Mount Holly and the restart of Potline 2 in Grundartangi last month. Both projects are off to an excellent start. At Mount Holly, the team started the 1st pots three weeks ago, and the startup is progressing on schedule to bring the full expansion project online by the end of June.

Jesse Gary

As a reminder, this project will increase Mount Holly's total production to approximately 230,000 metric tons and add over 125 full-time U.S. manufacturing jobs at the plant, increasing total U.S. primary aluminum production by nearly 10%. As we've discussed in the past, the project should increase Mount Holly's profitability significantly and fully repay its capital cost by the end of 2026. Please keep in mind that due to the incremental nature of the restart process, we will not see the full impact of our expanded Mount Holly production run rate until Q3. We've included the incremental tons that will be produced in Q2 in our Q2 outlook that Pete will cover with you in a bit. At Grundartangi, we restarted the first pots on line 2 on April 23rd, 2026 just one week after commencement of new pots at Mount Holly.

Jesse Gary

The restart has gone well, and we remain on schedule to restore all pots on line 2 by the end of July. As we discussed last quarter, following the return of all pots to service, the plant will return to nearly full production, but will run on a slightly reduced amperage until our new replacement transformers have arrived and are installed in the Q4. Our anticipated production for both projects is included in our Q2 outlook and our full year volume guidance shown on page 16. Pete will give you some additional detail on spending on both projects as well as associated insurance recovery for Grundartangi in a minute. At Jamalco, the refinery continued its recovery from Hurricane Melissa and associated power instability in Q1 and progressed with the commissioning of its new steam generation turbine, which we expect to be completed later this quarter.

Jesse Gary

The global alumina market has been impacted by the conflict in the Middle East, where smelter closures have temporarily decreased global demand for alumina and weighed on global alumina prices. At the same time, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has impacted caustic soda and heavy fuel oil prices, although our HFO hedge book has offset some of this impact. The plant has been experiencing some lower quality bauxite than expected from certain of its mining areas and is in the process of adjusting its mining plan accordingly. Finally, Sebree had another excellent quarter of performance in Q1, overcoming higher energy prices arising from Winter Storm Fern to deliver another strong set of results. Sebree is off to another great start in Q2.

Jesse Gary

I'd like to extend a special thank you to the entire Century operations and technical teams for their tremendous performance over the last 6 months to enable these two major projects at Mount Holly and Grundartangi to proceed successfully at the same time. Their skill and hard work has delivered these projects on or ahead of schedule, bringing significant production back into a market facing significant disruption from elsewhere in the world. This is not easy, and our team has knocked it out of the park. Pete will now take you through our Q1 financial performance and Q2 outlook.

Peter Trpkovski

Thank you, Jesse. I'll begin with a review of our Q1 financials and then cover the restart of operations in Mount Holly and Grundartangi, along with an update on business interruption insurance in Iceland. I'll conclude with our Q2 outlook. Turning to slide eight, Q1 shipments totaled approximately 123,000 tons, down sequentially due to line 2 in Iceland being offline for the full quarter following its idling in late October 2025. Net sales reached $649 million, an increase of $15 million, primarily driven by higher LME prices and regional premiums, despite lower shipment volumes. Net income was $338 million, or $3.23 per share, while adjusted net income, excluding exceptional items, was $171 million, or $1.63 per share.

Peter Trpkovski

Exceptional items included the unrealized derivative losses, restart expenses at Mount Holly, a gain on the Hawesville transaction, and business interruption in Iceland. Adjusted EBITDA was $231 million for the quarter, driven by higher LME and regional premiums, improved operating expenses, and favorable sales mix. These gains were partially offset by higher energy prices and raw material costs. Our cash balance stood at $332 million, including the cash proceeds from the Hawesville sale. We continue to prioritize debt reduction, and to this end, $8 million of industrial revenue bonds were paid down using the Hawesville proceeds. As a result, net debt declined to $220 million, below our target of less than $300 million. This positions us well as we move into a period of strong organic growth and capital-intensive spending to add production volume at Mount Holly and Grundartangi.

Peter Trpkovski

Turning to page nine, adjusted EBITDA rose by $60 million in Q1 to $231 million. Realized LME was $2,900 per ton, up approximately $285 from last quarter. The U.S. Midwest premium increased to $2,200 per ton, up approximately $420, and the European premium climbed $80 to approximately $310 per ton. Combined, these prices added $85 million versus the prior quarter. As anticipated, energy and raw materials were a headwind this quarter. We experienced higher than normal winter power prices for Sebree following Winter Storm Fern, and we have begun to see input cost pressure across the other raw materials, including heavy fuel oil and caustic for the alumina refinery, as well as coke and pitch for the smelters.

Peter Trpkovski

Operating expenses were favorable over prior quarter, as spend related to the restart and expansion projects will now mainly hit in Q2 along with the metal units. Volume and sales mix were favorable as our annual sales contracts went into effect, reflecting an uplift in billet sales as anticipated. Now let's turn to slide 10 and look at cash flow. We began the quarter with $134 million in cash. We generated $231 million in adjusted EBITDA from operations and closed on the sale of Hawesville, receiving $200 million in proceeds before fees. We continue to accrue 45X tax credits with a $198 million receivable as of March 31st for full year 2023 and 2025 U.S. production, as well as now the first three months of 2026.

Peter Trpkovski

We expect to receive our full year 2025 amount of approximately $94 million in the next few months, as we just filed our full year 2025 tax return with the IRS last week. Quarterly CapEx totaled $76 million, of which $71 million is related to investment for Mount Holly expansion and Grundartangi restart of line 2, plus our new power generation unit, TG4, at Jamalco. We expect a similar amount of CapEx in Q2 to finish these projects and then should return to more normalized levels. Insurance recoveries in Q1 trailed claims by $38 million, which reduced cash flow from adjusted EBITDA. This is primarily timing. In early April, we did receive an additional $46 million advance from our insurers, which is not reflected here in our Q1 results. We have received a total of $83 million in insurance recoveries to date.

Peter Trpkovski

We continue to expect payments to lag one-two quarters behind our submitted insurance claims. Semiannual interest payments were made in Q1 related to our senior secured notes and hedge settlements for $14 million. We remain focused on debt reduction, having repaid our industrial revenue bonds following the Hawesville transaction. Lastly, on cash flow, working capital increased due to higher pricing and timing of payments on our major raw materials and customer receipts. We ended Q1 with $332 million in cash, reaching our net debt goal of under $300 million with strong liquidity in place. We have reached this position despite cash timing mismatch in insurance reimbursements in Iceland and 45X tax credits in the U.S., which should further improve our cash position from here over the next two quarters.

Peter Trpkovski

This strong cash and liquidity position supports our continued short-term focus in Q1 and Q2 on our expansion project at Mount Holly, as well as restarting line 2 in Iceland and investing in the new steam generation turbine at Jamalco. Let's turn to slide 11 and I'll look ahead to the next 90 days. For Q2, our lagged LME and regional premiums are expected to be up across all three components. We expect a realized LME of $3,175 per ton, a lagged US Midwest premium of $2,450 per ton, and the European duty paid premium of $485 per ton in Q2. Taken together, the lagged LME and delivery premium changes are expected to have an $85 million-$95 million increase to Q2 adjusted EBITDA when compared with Q1 levels.

Peter Trpkovski

Due to our contractual lags, realized LME and premiums will be below spot levels in Q2. Current spot prices should provide a further tailwind when they roll through our Q3 results. We expect U.S. energy prices to improve by $15 million from prior quarter as power prices moderated after the effects of Winter Storm Fern. This benefit is partially offset by heavy fuel oil prices that have risen with the broader oil price increase since the Middle East conflict started. Looking at our other raw materials, we expect increases in our coke, pitch, and caustic prices. As Jesse mentioned, we also expect to see some Jamalco cost and volume headwinds from lower bauxite quality impacting our overall alumina input costs. Taken together, we see a headwind of $10 million sequentially.

Peter Trpkovski

We expect operating expenses to increase $15 million-$20 million into Q2, in part to match increased production at Mount Holly and Grundartangi. In addition, as normal around this time of year, we also have some additional seasonal costs as we hire summer help across all of our assets. Volume and sales mix is expected to improve by $15 million-$20 million as we begin to see the incremental benefit of the additional Mount Holly volume ramping up. We will not reach our full run rate volume impact from the Mount Holly expansion and Grundartangi restart until Q3. The volume from these projects, especially these additional Mount Holly tons, will be an additional tailwind to the Q3ter results. All told, at expected realized prices. We expect Q2 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $315 million-$335 million.

Peter Trpkovski

With that, I'll hand the call back to Jesse.

Jesse Gary

Thanks, Pete. As we discussed last quarter, Century is ready to capitalize on the significant opportunities in front of us to add production in a market that is becoming increasingly short due to rising demand. This need for additional production has now significantly increased with the smelter disruptions in the Middle East. In Europe, the restored tons we are bringing on in Iceland will supply additional metal units and especially value-added products into a rising European duty paid premium environment that has now been exacerbated by the significant reduction in imports from the Middle East and Africa. In the U.S., the Mount Holly expansion is already stepping in to fill disrupted offshore supply chains for our key domestic customers. By the end of July, for the first time in over a decade, all Century assets should be operating at full production capacity.

Jesse Gary

The need for secure supply chains has never been more clear. Disruptions in the Middle East to both production capacity, but also to free transit itself, are leaving supply chains across a multitude of commodities strained and unable to deliver to intended markets. In an increasingly complex world, it is imperative that we are able to meet our domestic needs for critical minerals with domestic production. To this end, Century and our joint venture partner, Emirates Global Aluminium, continued to advance our Oklahoma smelter project in Q1, retaining Bechtel to complete the next stage of engineering work, advancing power discussions in Oklahoma, and making significant progress on financing discussions, which we expect will result in a final investment decision and groundbreaking by the end of the year.

Jesse Gary

The Oklahoma smelter is being designed with EGA's state-of-the-art EX smelting technology and will be the first smelter in the world to use this technology. At 750,000 metric tons, the new smelter will more than double total U.S. aluminum production and will restore domestic production of military-grade, high-purity aluminum. The restoration of domestic military-grade production is of ever-increasing importance as we emphasize rearmament following the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Truly, once built, the Oklahoma smelter will be amongst the most efficient and advanced in the world and a crown jewel of the U.S. industrial base. No company is investing more to restore U.S. aluminum production than Century. Century is already the largest producer of aluminum in the United States, employing more American primary aluminum workers than any other company.

Jesse Gary

Thanks to President Trump's leadership and the Section 232 program, we plan to invest billions more in new and expanded production at Mount Holly and our Oklahoma smelter project. Thanks for joining the call today, and we look forward to taking your questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your question from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Nick Giles

Yeah, thank you, operator. Good evening, guys. Thanks for the update here. Obviously, you know, a lot of volatility right now in the Middle East and some severe disruptions. I was just wondering if you could touch on if you've had any opportunities to take market share while some of these tons have been out of the market. My follow-up question was really just what your dialogue with EGA has looked like, if there's been any change in scope of the project just on the back of all of these disruptions. Thanks.

Jesse Gary

Sure, Nick. Thanks a lot. Good questions. As I said on the call, our focus, since the conflict started and since the supply lines have become a bit strained, has been to fill in the needs of our existing customer base, where they may be sourcing from other sources outside the U.S. and filling those in mainly with Mount Holly tons, but also some unpriced or unallocated tons that we came into the quarter with. We've been able to do a good job with that, again, prioritizing our existing customers first, and second, working with new customers, where we have excess metal to do that. All in all, I'd say the market's been orderly, and but it's really been helped by those additional Mount Holly tons, to fill in where needed.

Jesse Gary

Turning to the project, our conversations with EGA around the new Oklahoma smelter, I think it's fair to say, are both full go. We both remain very excited about the new project, and are working hard to make it happen. Without speaking for EGA, there really has been no change, as far as I can tell, in our interest in the project, and we've had full engagement, and I think both parties are very committed to make that project happen.

Operator

Your next question from the line of Katja Jancic with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Katja Jancic

Hi, thank you for taking my questions. Maybe first, just on Q2 guide, the OpEx side. I think Peter mentioned that some of that data is seasonal. Does that mean that some of that will reverse in Q3? Can you talk a bit about that, please?

Peter Trpkovski

Yeah. Hey, Katja, it's Pete. That's exactly right. As I was saying, typically around this time of year, we look across our footprint, we tend to have seasonality in our operating expenses, mainly around getting some summer help in the door and training that goes along with that. You see those costs in our Q2 guide. Coming out of the summer, you know, into Q3 and out of the summer months, we'll sort of reverse back to our normalized run rate of operating expenses. That really applies to the whole footprint.

Katja Jancic

That means the full $15 million-$20 million would reverse?

Peter Trpkovski

No. No, it's not the full amount. It's, it's probably a portion of that. We didn't, we didn't break it out exactly, but it's probably half or less than that. The, the rest of that, Katja, is just matched with the expanded, Mount Holly tons coming online, right? We're, we're gonna get incremental revenues from Mount Holly tons, but obviously you have some incremental OpEx, to produce those tons as well.

Katja Jancic

Okay. You talked about Q2 not fully benefiting from the current spot market, plus you're not gonna see the full volume from Iceland and Mount Holly. Can you provide a bit more of what the incremental potential could be in the current spot environment, assuming both of those assets are fully up and running?

Peter Trpkovski

Yeah, sure, Katya. I'd be happy to. You know, as you saw on the outlook, we tend to give what our expected realized prices are for the quarter. You know, in Q2, we're not fully priced yet, as we just hear in the first week of May. We have the balance of May to go on our revenue and obviously the balance of the quarter on some of our aluminum prices and things like that. If you just look at, you know, our three revenue components, the major revenue components, the LME global aluminum price, the U.S. Midwest premium, the European duty paid premium, all three today are higher than what we expect to realize in Q2.

Peter Trpkovski

If you just look ahead at that page and where we are in the spot market, you can easily see an additional $400 per ton of LME improvement at spot, maybe another $75 per ton at spot for U.S. Midwest premium, and then maybe another $100 per ton in uplifted European prices. If you just, again, traditionally, we refer to the sensitivities in the back. If you looked at those, you know, quick math, I think that's in the $70 million-$75 million range for just those three revenue components. If, again, if you took the Q2 guide midpoint, $325 million, and you sort of marked that at the spot, you can see, you know, a $400 million quarterly run rate level.

Peter Trpkovski

That doesn't include the full impact we will have and expect in Q3 from the full Mount Holly uplift. $400 probably is a good number to take away, plus some additional uplift from the Mount Holly restart expansion project.

Operator

Your next question comes from Matthew Key with Texas Capital. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Matthew Key

Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my questions. I apologize if this was addressed in your prepared remarks, but I wanted to touch on capital allocation and if there's any, you know, potential for capital returns to shareholders over the course of this year if the current market environment holds.

Jesse Gary

The simple answer to that is, Matt, is yes. If you flip to page 21, you can see our capital allocation framework. Obviously now, as you see on this slide, you can see that we've now met both our liquidity targets and our net debt targets. As we said, once we reach that stage, which we're at today, we first look and prioritize sustaining CapEx, then next look to our high return organic investments that we have available to us. Of course, in Q1 and Q2, we're very pleased to be able to expand Mount Holly. It's a very high return organic investment project. Then we're also in the process of restarting Grundartangi.

Jesse Gary

There, of course, we'll ultimately recover the cash from our insurance proceeds, but as Pete said, those proceeds are trailing spend by about one to two quarters. For Q1, Q2, it was clear to us the best allocation of our excess cash was to these two projects in line with our framework. We spent about $71 million of investment CapEx or restart CapEx in Q1. We expect about a similar level in Q2. We also paid down some debt this quarter. Coming out of Q2, we should largely be done with these investments and be in a really good position to start generating more cash. In addition to that just keep in mind, we also expect to receive our 2025 45X payment over the next few months.

Jesse Gary

We'll catch up on any outstanding Grundartangi insurance recoveries over this period. You should start to get back some of that working capital build that we've seen this past quarter from rising prices running through our AP and AR. We think that cash generation should be looking very good going forward, and we'll continue to look for the best and high best use of that cash. You know, as you know, our priority first will be to find more high return organic investments, otherwise we'll definitely look to capital returns.

Matthew Key

Got it. That's, that's super helpful. I appreciate that. Just as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about the $500 million DOE grant for the new Oklahoma smelter. I'm curious, does that get applied at the project level, or does Century get 100% of that grant?

Jesse Gary

We'll give the full detail of the capital breakdown and structure for the Oklahoma progress once we make that final investment decision. We have worked with DOE to be sure that it will be able to work with the Oklahoma project, and we have full confirmation of that from DOE. We're in good shape. That grant will reduce the overall caps to that project, and we'll get into further breakdown once we make that final investment decision and share that with you.

Matthew Key

Got it. Okay. That sounds good. Appreciate the time, and great job in the quarter.

Jesse Gary

Thanks, Matt.

Peter Trpkovski

Thanks, Matt.

Operator

Your next question comes from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your lines are now open. Please go ahead.

John Tumazos

Congratulations on all the good times.

Jesse Gary

Thank you, John.

John Tumazos

It's, I guess it's real hard to figure out the big picture in terms of politics in the world. Let's ask a couple outside the box kind of questions. Over the history of Century, the company hasn't always earned profits. Now that things are good, would you consider issuing 10 million shares, putting $600 million equity on the books, being ready to double the Oklahoma smelter if your partner wanted, or if tariffs got abolished in 2029 under a different president, you'd have an equity cushion?

Jesse Gary

Thanks, John. A good out-of-the-box question for sure. We are very pleased with both the performance of the business and the overall state of the balance sheet. I think we've made substantial progress on that over the past several years and the past couple of quarters. We're really, you know, just grateful to find ourselves in the situation that we are, to be looking at these very profitable investments that we have in front of us, and we're very excited about those investments. I think to your overall question, are we interested in making sure that we'll be able to make those things happen? Of course.

Jesse Gary

We also see our outlook, the significant cash generation that we have in front of us, and we feel pretty good about where we stand from a balance sheet perspective, especially as we continue to deliver over the next couple of quarters.

John Tumazos

In terms of the Oklahoma project, if it's, say, escalated to $5 billion because usually things cost more and your share is $2 billion and the government's helped you for a half a billion, should we expect something like, half of the remainder to be funded by cash flow and half by debt? Or how do you think, what's your game plan for, writing the checks?

Jesse Gary

Well, we'll share the final game plan as we continue to advance the project, and once we make those final investment decisions, we'll give you the full breakdown of both how we plan to finance the smelter timeline for building the smelter, final CapEx numbers. All of that will come once we're able to make that final decision. Stay tuned for that. I guess what I would just say to you is there are a variety of really good financing opportunities that are out there in the marketplace and available to these types of projects. We're excited about the types of things we're seeing as we start to do some of that planning on how we will finance the projects like this. I think everyone will be quite pleased once we're able to share what we achieve.

Operator

Your next question from the line of Timna Tanners with Wells Fargo. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Timna Tanners

Hey, good evening. I wanted to drill down a little bit, if I could, on the power agreement for the Oklahoma smelter. As we understand, that's the biggest issue for the smelter, and we also have heard that the local utility discussions are moving along nicely. Can you expand a bit more on what you're seeing there and what that might look like? We've heard that maybe it could look like some of the other power agreements around the world that are levered to the LME. Just curious if you could give us a bit more detail on it, please.

Jesse Gary

Sure. I guess what I can say, Timna, is we've been very pleased with the great business environment that we found in Oklahoma. Governor Stitt, as well as the whole Oklahoma delegation, you can tell they really want to bring businesses and jobs to Oklahoma. That's been a great incentive for us to look to locate the smelter there. I think I can say that for both ourselves and our partners. We have spent a lot of time negotiating with PSO, which is the local utility in Oklahoma.

Jesse Gary

Those negotiations are continuing to make good progress. I think both sides, you know, are eager to bring those to a conclusion so that we can bring this substantial development to the state, and all the jobs and all the economic impact that will come from that. I don't wanna get ahead of ourselves and talk about what the exact structure of what that power contract might look like, but I can say we're making good progress, and we're excited to get that project moving.

Timna Tanners

Okay, great. Then I guess just to beat a dead horse here on the capital case. When you go through the many moving parts of the 45X payment and more to come, the working capital online, the insurance on a lag, and what we know today of the big aluminum price, the massive shortfall in aluminum supply globally, that does seem to set up for a pretty big cash outflow or, you know, ability to deploy capital in the H2. Should we expect more color on use of capital on your next call, or when might we get more detail, or when should we expect that?

Jesse Gary

Yeah. I mean, that's a very fair question. I think as you laid it out, we do just find ourselves in this very dynamic time in the global market, both in the aluminum markets themselves and then with Century specifically, given all of our investment projects and all the work we're doing to bring all of this additional tons online, in addition to the Oklahoma project we just talked about. We thought, given all that, especially given the sort of cash spend that we needed to do to bring those tons online, it made sense to allocate, you know, the excess cash these two quarters to that.

Jesse Gary

As that starts to clear up, you laid out pretty clearly, a lot of those items that should be cleared out over the next couple of months before we talk again, I think the landscape will become simpler, and we'll be able to provide, you know, more color on that next call.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Jesse Gary for closing remarks.

Jesse Gary

Thank you everyone for joining the call. We remain laser-focused on completing these two projects in South Carolina and in Iceland, as well as our projects in Jamaica and Oklahoma. We've got a lot going on. We plan to deliver and look forward to talking to everybody in August. Thanks a lot.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-29

Century Aluminum Sets Date for First Quarter 2026 Earnings Announcement

GlobeNewswire

CHICAGO, April 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ: CENX) will report first quarter 2026 earnings on Thursday, May 7, 2026, after market close. The news release will be issued through GlobeNewswire. The company will hold a follow-up conference call on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. The earnings call will be webcast live on the Century Aluminum Company website, located at www.centuryaluminum.com. Plan to begin the registration process at least 10 minutes before the live call is scheduled to begin. A replay of the webcast will be archived and available for replay approximately two hours following the live call. Contact: Investors: Chad Rigg, 312.696.3132, [email protected] Media: Tawn Earnest, 614.698.6351, [email protected]

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-10

Aluminum Stocks Extend Breakouts Amid Iran War. Alcoa Earnings Due.

Investor's Business Daily

Aluminum stocks continue to rally with industry giant Alcoa set to report earnings next week. Kaiser Aluminum extended gains on Thursday after breaking out on Wednesday. Alcoa stock jumped above buy range to highs.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-02-23

Century Aluminum Q4 Earnings Miss Estimates, Decline Y/Y

Zacks

Century Aluminum Company CENX reported earnings of 2 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2025, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.25. The figure compares unfavorably with the prior-year quarter’s earnings of 47 cents and the previous quarter’s earnings of 15 cents. Century Aluminum Company price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Century Aluminum Company Quote The company reported net sales of $633.7 million, up 0.4% year over year. However, the figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $737.9 million. Sales increased 0.2% sequentially. The slight increase in sales was due to higher aluminum prices and increased regional premiums. Primary aluminum shipments were 140,257 tons, down around 16% year over year. At the end of the quarter, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $134.2 million, down 11.4% from the previous quarter. Net cash provided by operating activities was $183.6 million for the twelve months ended Dec. 31, 2025. The company forecasts first-quarter 2026 adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $215 million to $235 million, with increased metal pricing and regional premiums, offset by temporary higher energy costs in the United States due to Winter Storm Fern. Shares of Century Aluminum have risen 183.8% in the past year compared with the industry’s 45.7% growth. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research CENX currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other top-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are New Gold Inc. NGD, Compania de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. BVN and Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. ASM. New Gold is expected to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 25. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NGD’s fourth-quarter earnings is pegged at 27 cents, indicating 285.71% year over year growth. NGD currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Buenaventura is slated to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 26. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at 59 cents per share, indicating 353.85% year over year growth. It beat the consensus estimate in three of the last four quarters, with an average surprise of 28.02%. BVN sports a Zacks Rank #1 at present. Avino Silver is slated to report fourth-quarter results on March 11. The consensus estimate for ASM’s earnings is pegged at 6 cents. ASM, presently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), beat the consensu...

As of 2026-05-30 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook