Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ:CENX) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 8, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Peter Trpkovski - VP, Finance & IR

Jesse Gary - President and CEO

Jerry Bialek - EVP and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Lucas Pipes - B. Riley Securities

Timna Tanners - Wolfe Research

John Tumazos - John Tumazos Very Independent Research

Katja Jancic - BMO Capital Markets

Operator

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending today's Century Aluminum Company First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for question and answers at the end. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Peter Trpkovski, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations with Century Aluminum, you may proceed.

Peter Trpkovski

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the conference call. I'm joined here today by Jesse Gary, Century's President and Chief Executive Officer; Jerry Bialek, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Shelly Harrison, Senior Vice President of Finance and our Treasurer. After our prepared comments, we'll take your questions.

As a reminder, today's presentation is available on our website at www. centuryaluminum.com. We use our website as a means of disclosing material information about the company and for complying with Regulation FD.

Turning to slide one, please take a moment to review the cautionary statement shown here with respect to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures contained in today's discussion.

And with that, I'll hand the call to Jesse.

Jesse Gary

Thanks Pete and thanks to everyone for joining. I'll start today by quickly reviewing our strong first quarter financial performance before turning to a brief summary of market conditions. Jerry will then take you through the financial results and I'll finish with a discussion of our exciting new acquisition of a controlling interest in the Jamalco alumina refinery and bauxite mines.

Turning to slide three, market conditions for aluminum improved in the first quarter with both LME prices and regional premiums increasing from Q4 levels, driven by further supply side reductions in Europe and China.

At the same time, input costs largely decreased quarter-over-quarter with US power prices falling most significantly. These improving market conditions paired with strong operating results drove Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $24 million, which is an improvement of approximately $36 million over Q4. These good results were enabled by a tremendous effort by our operators across our locations.