Century Aluminum Halts Production At Sebree Smelter Potline

Century Aluminum Company’s (NASDAQ:CENX) fully-owned subsidiary — Century Aluminum Sebree LLC — was forced to halt production on one of its three potlines temporarily because of an electrical failure at the Sebree aluminum smelter.

The company is assessing the impacts of these events but expects to restore full production of the affected potline within the next three months. Moreover, it projects that the production lost from these incidents to be less than 18,000 tons. Century Aluminum also anticipates that losses arising from the events will be covered under its insurance policies.

The stock has rallied 28.2% in the past six months, significantly outperforming the industry’s 11.1% decline.

Century Aluminum incurred a loss of $0.3 million in first-quarter 2018 against a loss of $15.1 million in the year-ago period. Barring one-time items, Century Aluminum’s adjusted loss was 4 cents per share in the quarter, which was narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 23 cents.

The company is seeing strong industry fundamentals and attractive demand growth in most global regions. It expects significant opportunity in the U.S. market over the coming years along with limited exemptions from tariffs.

The company also plans to restart the three potlines at its Hawesville plant and complete several capital projects required to help the plant achieve full-production capacity again. The plant is anticipated to return to full capacity by early 2019.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Century Aluminum currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked stocks worth considering in the industrial products space include Terex Corporation (NYSE:TEX) , Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:AIT) and Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Terex has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 21%. Its shares have gained 21.3% in a year.

Applied Industrial has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 12%. Its shares have moved up 11% in a year.

Graco has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 10.3%. Its shares have rallied 24% in a year.

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