"After years of improvement efforts motivated by the need to adapt to external challenges, we are now starting to take advantage of new opportunities. After years of talking about being part of the solution, we are now turning words into action. In everyday operations Hydro is a producer of aluminium. In the broader picture, I see Hydro in the business of making the world lighter - by light-weighting people's daily lives and by easing the burden of climate change by saving greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy-efficiency," President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg writes in his letter to shareholders.
"More and more discover the inherent properties of aluminium. Through innovation and product development we bring new aluminium solutions into new applications. Due to its light weight, formability, durability and endless recyclability, the growth is strikingly broad-based, spanning sectors like transportation, packaging, building & construction as well as electrical applications. While other base metals seem to have reached the point of saturation in many markets, aluminium still has a significant potential for increased use. In 2017 we're expecting demand for aluminium to grow by a healthy 3-5 percent," Brandtzæg says.
"Last year we invested in future-oriented projects that we expect to be successful seen from a strategic, financial and a climate point of view. In 2017 three important symbols of the new era will be in full operation; the Karmøy Technology Pilot in Norway, the Automotive Line 3 and the UBC recycling line in Germany, Brandtzæg continues.
"Seizing new opportunities doesn't mean that we have put our improvement efforts behind us. It's in our company DNA to always improve and renew and do better tomorrow than we did yesterday - in safety, in operations, and financially. I am especially pleased with how the improvement efforts are giving tangible results in safety. Our first duty is to make sure that our colleagues return home from work just as safe and sound as when they turn up. A year without fatalities and a TRI rate of 2.6 (work-related injuries per million work hours) make 2016 our best-ever, both for our own employees and contractors. We can never take safety for granted. We have to work for it and be aware every single day, aiming at zero fatalities and a TRI rate below 2 by 2020. Improvements also materialize on the bottom-line. By delivering NOK 1.4 billion in improvements in 2016, we surpassed our NOK 1.1 billion target. It encourages me to see that our people even know how to do 'Better' better. It also allows us to offer a safe and reliable dividend to shareholders," Brandtzæg says.
"I am happy, not only about the results we achieve, but also by how we achieve them. By being a 360 degree aluminium company, fully integrated along the entire aluminium value-chain, Hydro is in a unique position to control every step of production, and be responsible - for the land, water and forests, for our employees and the communities we engage with, for the energy use and emissions in our processes, and for bringing end products back into the loop to be used over again. By being part of the solution to some of the mega trends of our time, light-weighting being one of them - supported by determined implementation of ever new steps under the Better, Bigger, Greener aspiration - we are ready to set out for another 100 years. It's an inherent strength of our Hydro Way. We have the patience to take the long-term perspective, and the eagerness to use every opportunity, every day, to make things happen, " Brandtzæg says.
The report, meeting the Norwegian statutory requirements for annual reporting, is "Financial Statements and Board of Directors' Report - 2016." This report is available in Norwegian and English.
In addition, a more extensive report is available, "Annual Report - 2016," with detailed information about Hydro's businesses, operational performance, financial performance, viability performance, corporate governance and financial statements. The report is available in English.
At www.hydro.com/reporting201 6 content from the two reports is presented with supplementary information. All parts of the reports can be downloaded from this web site and printed in PDF format on demand.
Hydro's main reporting on viability performance is included in the "Annual Report - 2016," with additional details on www.hydro.com/reporting201 6
Investor contact Contact Stian Hasle Cellular +47 97736022 E-mail Stian.Hasle@hydro.com
Press contact Contact Halvor Molland Cellular +47 92979797 E-mail Halvor.Molland@hydro.com
Cautionary note Certain statements included in this announcement contain forward-looking information, including, without limitation, information relating to (a) forecasts, projections and estimates, (b) statements of Hydro management concerning plans, objectives and strategies, such as planned expansions, investments, divestments, curtailments or other projects, (c) targeted production volumes and costs, capacities or rates, start-up costs, cost reductions and profit objectives, (d) various expectations about future developments in Hydro's markets, particularly prices, supply and demand and competition, (e) results of operations, (f) margins, (g) growth rates, (h) risk management, and (i) qualified statements such as "expected", "scheduled", "targeted", "planned", "proposed", "intended" or similar.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, these forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and forecasts that, by their nature, involve risk and uncertainty. Various factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in a forward-looking statement or affect the extent to which a particular projection is realized. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: our continued ability to reposition and restructure our upstream and downstream businesses; changes in availability and cost of energy and raw materials; global supply and demand for aluminium and aluminium products; world economic growth, including rates of inflation and industrial production; changes in the relative value of currencies and the value of commodity contracts; trends in Hydro's key markets and competition; and legislative, regulatory and political factors.
No assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Hydro disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
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