Europe’s largest copper producer Aurubis is looking to increase its sales to the US while there are no import tariffs on the metal, CEO Toralf Haag told analysts on Thursday.
Copper was not included in a list of reciprocal tariffs announced by the US in April but US President Donald Trump ordered a probe into copper imports in February. Aurubis said its findings are expected by November 2025 at the latest.
“Our operation in the US is to play a role in the US copper market,” Haag said, adding that the company’s current sales to the US were limited.
Haag said in April that Aurubis would ramp up its copper recycling smelter in the US this year, with the potential for further investment in coming years.
The smelter in Richmond County in Georgia is the company’s only US operation.
CFO Steffen Hoffmann said that projects like Richmond, its US multi-metal recycling plant, should contribute a lower double-digit million euro amount to the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization next year.
The company reported half-year core profit above market expectations on Thursday, helped by higher prices of sulphuric acid and precious metals.
Operating earnings before tax (EBT) fell 5.8% to 229 million euros ($259.2 million) in the six months through March 2025, from 243 million euros a year earlier. That beat analysts’ expectations of 221 million euros in a company-provided poll.
Reduced concentrate throughput at lower treatment and refining charges and higher ramp-up costs for strategic projects, such as its multi-metal recycling plant in the United States, had a negative effect on the operating EBT, Aurubis said.
The metals recycler and smelter confirmed its forecast for the 2024/25 financial year, adding that it expected full-year operating EBT around the midpoint of a 300 million to 400 million euros range.
($1 = 0.8836 euros)
(By Bernadette Hogg; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Jane Merriman)
