BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's largest copper producer Aurubis raised its full-year profit target on Thursday after preliminary second-quarter profits almost doubled as strong demand and high metal prices more than offset the impact of high energy costs.
The Hamburg-based company said it now expected full-year operating earnings before taxes (EBT) to come in at 500-600 million euros ($544-653 million), compared to its previous forecast of 400-500 million euros.
The main reasons were high metal prices, very strong demand for copper products and sulfuric acid as well as very good operating performance at all Aurubis plants in the second quarter, the company said.
Thanks to these factors, Aurubis said its operating EBT jumped nearly 90% to 194 million euros in the second quarter of its 2021-2022 financial year.
It added it would only be able to meet the new target if it could keep up production throughout the year despite the war in Ukraine, though it did not currently expect any bottlenecks at its production sites.
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