Tiwai Point smelter's earnings plunge in second half of financial year

Tiwai Point smelter's earnings plunge in second half of financial year
Pattrick Smellie
By Pattrick Smellie May 30 (BusinessDesk) - The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter made an underlying profit after tax of $54 million in the year to Dec. 31, just $2 million less than the previous year's profit, although only $4 million of that was made in the second half of the financial year. Rio Tinto-controlled New Zealand Aluminium Smelters will decide by the end of July whether to sign a new electricity contract for 172 Megawatts of its total 572MW load at a new, higher price and warned in today's statement that the smelter is "facing ev...