Noranda won't be foiled by aluminum industry woes

When demand for aluminum plummeted and prices dropped drastically earlier this year, Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. was deep in the red and cutting jobs. The Franklin-based company faced diminutive February aluminum prices of 58 cents per pound versus $1.25 a year ago, says Noranda chief financial officer Bob Mahoney. The company posted a $72.8 million loss in operating income in the first six months of 2009 versus a gain of $76.9 million in operating income for the same time period in 2008. After one-time gains for hedging actvity and debt repurchases, the company was able to post an overall gain of $32 million for the first half of 2009. To cut costs, the company conducted two rounds of layoffs, resulting in a loss of 20 percent of its staff. Aluminum prices have since rebounded to about 90 cents per pound and Noranda, a company privately owned by affiliates of New York equity firm Apollo Management, seems to have weathered the storms — literally.