Noranda Aluminum Sees Q3 Demand Like Q2

NEW YORK, Aug. 5 -- Noranda Aluminum Holding Co, which just reported a profit following its initial public offering, expects third-quarter demand for the metal to be similar to the second quarter, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

"It's impossible to forecast price (but) what's reasonable to expect is ... a steady demand pattern from the second to the third quarter," Chief Executive Office Kip Smith told Reuters in an interview. "Typically, our strongest quarters are the second and third and I think this will be a typical year for our demand pattern."

Asked about the outlook for the aluminum industry as it emerges from the recession, Smith said: "We are bullish on the outlook in the medium and long term."

Last week, Tennessee-based Noranda, which produces about 15 percent of the aluminum made in the United States, reported a second-quarter profit of 14 cents per share, on revenue of $334.9 million, and said shipments in its flat-rolled products segment rose 16 percent.

Noranda emerged as a publicly traded company in May after an IPO by its majority owner, the private equity firm Apollo Management LP.

The IPO priced at the bottom of the expected range after being earlier delayed. The company sold 10 million shares for $8 each, raising about $80 million, which it used to pay down debt. It had originally planned to sell 16.67 million shares for $14 to $16 each.

Asked about the lower IPO price and whether the company had considered putting off going public, Smith said "clearly the price we went out at was less than the range.

"But it was still clearly within the boundaries of what was acceptable to us and now we've had the opportunity to build that track record and we've had our first quarter.

"We feel it was appropriate timing. It was a difficult week we were out and market conditions were very challenging."

He noted the IPO was done at a time when the price of aluminum in London has dropped sharply. It went from over $2,400 per tonne in April to around $2,000 as weak demand for cars, planes and construction and uncertainty over the strength of the global recovery have weighed on the metal.

Noranda operates a mine in Jamaica to produce bauxite which is refined into alumina at its Gramercy, Louisiana facility. The alumina is then smelted into aluminum at Noranda's smelter near New Madrid, Missouri.

Besides the primary metals, or upstream business, Noranda also has downstream businesses producing rolled products at four rolling mill facilities in Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas.

Smith said the company had plans to expand its smelter to produce an extra 30 million pounds, or about 5 percent, of its annual 580 million pound aluminum production. But because of the recession, the plans were still on hold but would go ahead after evaluation, "at the appropriate time given market conditions."

Noranda stock closed up 12 cents, or 1.49 percent, at $8.16 on the New York Stock Exchange.