Admin I Friday, Sept.1, 2023
BERLIN – Germany copper producer Aurubis said it had once again been the victim of massive metal theft and warned it would fall short of its full-year financial target on Thursday.
Aurubis said that it had found “significant deviations” from stockpiles and shipments of metal at its recycling business during a regular review. Based on these indications, Aurubis assumed “that the company has become the subject of further criminal act,” beyond the cases revealed in June.
In June, the Hamburg-based company revealed that thieves had allegedly stolen precious metal-bearing intermediate products from the company over a period of years, netting the thieves about €20 million ($21.7 million).
The company, which is Europe’s largest copper producer, had called in the state criminal investigation office over the latest incident, it said.
It had also started an extraordinary inventory of its metal stocks, according to information in the mandatory stock exchange release. The result of the audit is expected at the end of September.
At present, it could not be ruled out that a loss in the “low, three-digit” million range had been incurred, the company said.
The forecast for the earnings in the current business year of between €450 million to €550 million could therefore not be maintained.
In June, more than 30 properties in Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse were searched because of metal theft at Aurubis.
Six men were arrested, the public prosecutor’s office announced at the time.
