The Russian division of Alcoa has posted break-even results in the first quarter of the year, according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld. With the accounting books balanced, the performance of Alcoa’s Russian plants in quarter one, 2010 represents the best results the U.S. company was able to achieve since entering the market. Maxim Smirnov, the Financial Director of Alcoa indicated that the company’s positive EBITDA was the result of a well-managed reconstruction project that started last year. The targets of the program were twofold: to cut costs and to optimize the product-line.

The company had a positive cash flow in the latter half of 2009, making it possible to post a positive EBITDA at the start of 2010. Naturally, the end goal for the metallurgical company is to be profitable in Russia.

Because of the economic downturn, Alcoa’s plants in Russia were working at 50 percent of their production capacity. Inefficient production was responsible for the company’s losses in previous years.

In 2005, Alcoa purchased the Belaya Kalitva Production Association located in Rostov oblast, as well as the Samara Metallurgical Plant at the price of USD 257 million. The Belaya Kalitva facility was renamed to Alcoa Metallurg Rus, and the Samara plant to Alcoa SMZ.