Status: 31.08.2023, 19:48 p.m.
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View of the "Aurubis" lettering above the entrance gate of Aurubis' East plant. © Georg Wendt/dpa
According to its own statements, the Hamburg-based copper manufacturer Aurubis assumes that it has once again become a victim of metal theft and is therefore cancelling its forecast for the year. It was only in June that it became known that a gang of thieves had stolen intermediate products containing precious metals from the company for years, generating proceeds worth around 20 million euros.
Hamburg - As Aurubis announced in Hamburg on Thursday evening, "significant deviations from the target inventory as well as deviations from the target stock were found in the case of special samples of certain deliveries of input materials in the recycling sector". On the basis of these indications, it can be assumed "that the company has become the subject of further criminal acts - beyond the cases published in June 2023". According to Aurubis, it has called in the State Office of Criminal Investigation. The extent of the damage could not yet be determined with certainty, it said.
According to information in the filing statement, Aurubis has launched an extraordinary inventory of metal inventories. The result is expected at the end of September 2023. At present, it cannot be ruled out that damage in the "low, three-digit" million range has been incurred. The damage will have a negative impact on the result of the 2022/23 financial year. The forecast corridor for the current financial year 2022/23 of 450 million to 550 million euros could therefore not be maintained. On the stock market, the news caused unrest among investors, and Aurubis shares plummeted significantly on the Tradegate trading platform in an initial reaction.
Aurubis claims to be the world's leading supplier of non-ferrous metals and one of the largest copper recyclers in the world. In mid-June, the Hamburg public prosecutor's office had more than 30 properties in Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse searched for metal theft at Aurubis. Six men were arrested, the prosecutor's office said at the time. The accused and other, still unknown accomplices are said to have stolen several tons of precious metal-containing by-products of copper production from the company premises in varying degrees of involvement. Dpa