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Copper producer Aurubis aims to boost US sales without tariffs

Toralf Haag, CEO of Europe's biggest copper producer Aurubis, told analysts that the company is interested in increasing its sales to the U.S. because there are no tariffs on imports.

The U.S. did not include copper in its list of reciprocal tariffs, announced in April. However, President Donald Trump had ordered an investigation into the imports of copper in February. Aurubis stated that its findings should be available by the end of November 2025.

Haag added that the company had limited sales in the U.S.

Haag announced in April that Aurubis will increase its copper recycling smelter capacity in the U.S. in this year. Additional investment is possible in future years.

The only U.S. operations of the company are located in Richmond County, Georgia.

Steffen Hoffmann, CFO, said that projects such as Richmond, the multimetal recycling facility in the United States, would contribute to earnings of the company before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization next year.

The company's core profit for the first half of this year was higher than expected, thanks to higher prices for sulphuric acids and precious metals.

Operating earnings before taxes (EBT) dropped 5.8% from 243 millions euros to 229,2 million euros in the six-month period ending March 2025. This exceeded the 221 million euro expectation of analysts in a poll provided by the company.

Aurubis stated that the EBT operating result was negatively affected by the reduced concentrate throughput due to lower treatment and refinement charges, and the higher ramp-up cost for strategic projects such as the multimetal recycling facility in the United States.

The metals recycling and smelter confirmed their forecast for 2024/25, adding that they expected the full-year operating EBT to be around the middle of the range between 300 million and 400 million euros. $1 = 0.8836 Euros (Reporting from Bernadette in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak. Jane Merriman edited the article.

(source: Reuters)