Century Aluminum Company Stock

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Century Aluminum Company Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Chad Rigg, Vice President, Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the second quarter conference call.

I'm joined here today by Jesse Gary, Century's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Peter Trpkovski, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared comments, we will take your questions.

As a reminder, today's presentation is available on our website at www.centuryaluminum.com. We use our website as a means of disclosing material information about the company and for complying with Regulation FD.

Turning to Slide 2. Please take a moment to review the cautionary statements with respect to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures in today's discussion.

And with that, I'll hand the call to Jesse.

Thank you, Chad, and thanks to everyone for joining. I'll start today by reviewing our second quarter operational performance, including the completion of the Mt. Holly expansion and the restart of Potline 2 at Grundartangi before turning to the continued strong market conditions we are operating in today. Pete will then walk you through our Q2 results and Q3 outlook before I conclude the call with the latest on our new Oklahoma smelter project and on President Trump's important new executive order, incentivizing companies like Century that are building new American aluminum capacity.

Before we get into the quarter, I want to thank the Century team across all of our sites for another strong quarter of safety performance. Over the last six months, our teams have executed two major capital projects on two continents, all while welcoming hundreds of new employees into our plants, and they did it safely. That is not luck. It is a product of planning, discipline and a workforce that looks out for one another. Thank you to each of you.

Turning to Page 4. When we spoke with you in May, I told you that by the end of July, for the first time in over a decade, all Century assets should be operating at full capacity. I'm very proud to report today that our team has delivered on that commitment. At Mt. Holly, we completed the restart of the final 90 pots in late June on time and on budget, returning the plant to full capacity. This project increases total U.S. primary aluminum production by nearly 10% and has added over 150 full-time American manufacturing jobs to the plant. We were proud to host U.S. Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick; and South Carolina Attorney General, Alan Wilson to the plant last week to celebrate this major achievement.

At Grundartangi, we completed the restart of Line 2 at the end of July, roughly six months ahead of the time line we first shared with you last October. It is worth taking a step back for a moment. 10 months ago, we had just lost a potline in Iceland following an unprecedented transformer failure and Mt. Holly was running at only 75% capacity. Today, both plants are producing at full capacity into a market that needs every unit we can produce. That turnaround was accomplished by our operations and technical teams working across time zones in parallel on two of the most complex projects this company has undertaken. Congratulations to all of you. This is a remarkable achievement, and you should be proud of it.

Staying with Page 4 on operations. We saw strong performance across the portfolio in the second quarter while executing this level of major project work. At Mt. Holly, the ramp-up progressed on schedule throughout the quarter with the plant reaching full production at the end of June. As a reminder, because of the incremental nature of the restart, Q2 reflects only a partial quarter of the expanded run rate. We will see the full benefit of these tonnes for the first time in Q3. Note that we have seen some instability of the plant following the restart. This is not unusual following a restart of this size. The team is working through it and the impact is included in the outlook. Note that we do not expect any impact beyond Q3 and the project remains fully on track to repay its capital cost by the end of 2026.

At Grundartangi, the Line 2 restart went smoothly and the plant is now close to full production. As we discussed last quarter, we are running Line 2 at slightly reduced amperage until our new replacement transformers arrive and are installed in the fourth quarter. We are being deliberately conservative here to avoid putting undue stress on the repaired units and the team has managed that balance well.

At Jamalco, we brought our new power generation turbine known as TG4 online at the beginning of August. This is an important milestone. TG4 allows us to run Jamalco on entirely self-generated energy, eliminating expensive and as we learned last winter, sometimes unreliable purchases from the Jamaican grid. The full benefit will phase in over the balance of the year and is a significant step change in the Jamalco cost structure. Nice work by the Jamalco team in getting this one across the line. As we discussed last quarter, the refinery does continue to see lower quality bauxite from certain of its mining areas. The team is a revised mining plan in place and is working through it, but we expect this will take another couple of quarters to fully implement. In the meantime, it remains a modest headwind to Jamalco's cost and volumes, and Pete has reflected that in our outlook.

Finally, Sebree delivered another excellent quarter. This plant has now strung together quarter after quarter of top-tier operating and financial performance, and it continues to set the standard for the rest of the portfolio. Great work again by the entire Sebree team.

Before I hand things to Pete, let's spend a few minutes on the market, starting on Page 5. The short version is that we are bringing these additional tonnes from Mt. Holly and Grundartangi into as strong a market as this industry has seen in a very long time. Following the limited reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, prices have now returned to pre-conflict levels. LME is approximately $3,250 per tonne today. The U.S. Midwest premium is approximately $1.11 per pound and the European duty paid premium is approximately $500 per tonne. The market continues to evaluate what is happening in the Gulf. Research have only been announced at EGA, and that is a welcome development for our friends there. But we have not yet seen restart announcements in Bahrain or Qatar, and I would be careful about assuming that the production levels in the Gulf as a whole will come back quickly.

Restarting curtailed potlines is slow and difficult work. We know that better than most, having just done it twice ourselves. And these plants are doing it while their raw material supply chains are still not fully normalized. We do not have good visibility into how long it will take or can any of us say with confidence what further disruption to transit through the Strait would do to those time lines.

On the demand side, the U.S. picture is as strong as we have seen in years. Monday's ISM manufacturing report for July came in well above expectations, the seventh consecutive month of expansion and the strongest reading since May of 2022. That is a strong environment our customers are operating in, and we are seeing it directly when we speak with them. Aluminum demand is being driven by the power and data infrastructure build-out by commercial aerospace and by defense and rearmament programs as well as the continued reshoring of extrusion and downstream fabrication following President Trump's April action closing the valuation loopholes in the Section 232 program.

When you take the supply and demand picture together, we continue to expect a global deficit of around 1 million tonnes this year, and we would expect deficit conditions to continue in 2027. With Middle Eastern smelters producing material less metal in 2026 than they otherwise would have, a large portion of that shortfall is now locked in no matter how the restarts go from here. You cannot make up lost tons in a market that was already short. The result is visible in inventories. Global days of consumptions held in inventory have now fallen through the post-financial crisis lows we have referenced on prior calls and are approaching all-time lows. With deficits persisting through the balance of this year and into next, we expect that drawdown to continue.

There is very little cushion left anywhere in the system. In a market with no slack, the value of secure domestic units goes up. And with the completion of both restarts, Century now has more of them to sell in both the U.S. and EU markets.

Pete will now take you through our second quarter financial performance and Q3 outlook.

Thank you, Jesse. I will begin with the review of our Q2 financial performance and provide an update on the Mt. Holly expansion and restart of Grundartangi 1 and 2, along with an update on cash flow for the business. Lastly, I'll share our Q3 outlook.

Turning to Slide 8. On a consolidated basis, second quarter shipments totaled approximately 131,000 tonnes, a 6% increase from the prior quarter due to additional production from the restart of Line 2 in Iceland and the Mt. Holly expansion. Net sales for the quarter were $752 million, a $103 million increase sequentially, primarily due to higher realized LME and regional premiums as well as higher shipments. For the quarter, we reported net income of $249 million or $2.39 per share. Our adjusted net income was $257 million or $2.46 per share, excluding exceptional items. Exceptional items included the unrealized gains on our derivative contracts, business interruption losses in Iceland and restart expenses at Mt. Holly.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $327 million, primarily attributable to higher LME and regional premiums and increased volume resulting from expanded output at Mt. Holly. During the quarter, we continued our efforts to enhance the balance sheet. Our cash balance stood at $388 million at the end of June. We continue to prioritize debt reduction with $66 million in debt repayments in the quarter, resulting in no outstanding borrowings on our credit facilities at the end of the quarter. Net debt was reduced to $98 million. And as of the end of July, our cash position exceeded our total debt. More on that in a couple of minutes.

Turning to Page 9. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter increased $96 million to $327 million. Realized LME was $3,250 per tonne, up $350 versus prior quarter. Our realized U.S. Midwest premium was $2,480 per tonne, up $280 and higher European premium of $450 per tonne was up $140. Taken together, LME and regional premiums pricing contributed an incremental $95 million compared with the prior quarter. Energy costs returned to normalized levels after winter and raw material costs were higher as anticipated. Volume and sales mix were up $8 million over prior quarter. This increased production volume was expected from our expansion at Mt. Holly. However, shipments at quarter end were affected by cutoff timing, which resulted in a sequential increase in finished goods inventory related to the Mt. Holly expansion. We expect that inventory to ship in Q3, and I'll cover that in more detail shortly. As anticipated on our last call, operating expenses increased over prior quarter, driven by the Mt. Holly expansion, reflecting the 100% capacity run rate.

Now let's turn to Slide 10 for a look at cash flow. We began the quarter with $332 million in cash. We generated strong cash from operations during the quarter. We continue to accrue 45X tax credits quarterly with cash receipts following the filing of our annual tax return. In Iceland, we continue to have a cash impact as the insurance recoveries on the Line 2 lost profits lag on a quarterly basis. In the quarter, we received $46 million related to previous lost profit margin. Quarterly CapEx totaled $59 million, of which $37 million was related to the investment for the Mt. Holly expansion and our new power generation unit, TG4 at Jamalco.

We had $30 million in hedge settlements during the quarter. Cash interest in the quarter was roughly $5 million. We had a working capital build this quarter as the expansion at Mt. Holly increased our working capital back to 100% capacity as well as increased finished good inventory that I mentioned earlier as a result of shipment timing. We expect to recoup cash from some of this finished goods inventory into Q3. We paid down $66 million related to our Icelandic revolver in Q2 and ended the quarter with no borrowings on our revolving credit facilities.

We ended Q2 with $388 million in cash and strong liquidity in place. As discussed, many of these items will convert to cash in future quarters. For example, at the end of July, we received $94 million in cash for 45X tax credits outstanding related to fiscal year '25. We also received an additional $19 million in July for the Grundartangi insurance recoveries. Also, Century's balance sheet has never been stronger with all short-term debt repaid. And as of today, Century's cash on hand exceeds its total debt. Going forward, we are expecting even stronger cash flow conversion as investment CapEx related to the Mt. Holly and Grundartangi restarts are now complete, just leaving primarily sustaining CapEx over the second half of the year.

Now let's turn to Slide 11, and I'll look ahead to the next 90 days. For Q3, lagged LME of $3,325 per tonne is expected to be up about $75 versus Q2 realized prices. The Q3 lagged U.S. Midwest premium is expected to be $1.09 per pound, down $0.03 versus Q2 realized prices. The European duty paid premium is expected to be approximately $520 per ton in Q3 or up about $70 per ton. Taken together, the lagged LME and delivery premium changes are expected to have a $5 million to $10 million increase to Q3 adjusted EBITDA when compared with Q2 levels. We expect energy headwinds of $10 million to $15 million as we typically see due to warmer summer weather.

Looking at our other raw materials, we continue to see moderate increases in our input costs. We see a small headwind of $5 million sequentially. We expect OpEx to be flat in the third quarter. Volume and sales mix is expected to improve $15 million to $25 million with increased production and shipments at Mt. Holly. Also, at expected realized prices, we expect Q3 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $325 million to $345 million. Consistent with prior practice, we also include the estimated hedge and tax impacts to help model our business at the bottom of the page. We expect a $20 million to $25 million headwind from realized hedge settlements and $10 million to $15 million tax expense, both flowing through our Q3 P&L and impacting adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share.

And with that, I'll hand the call back to Jesse.

Thank you, Pete. Before I turn to Oklahoma to finish the call, a brief word on Hawesville, which you can see on Page 21. When we sold the site in February, we received $200 million in cash and retained a 6.8% nondilutive interest in the completed data center. Since then, the project has taken a significant step forward. Our partner, TeraWulf has signed Anthropic as a data center tenant to a 20-year lease that is expected to generate lease revenue of approximately $19 billion in total over its initial term. Energization is still expected in the second half of 2027 and our right to put our share in the data center back to TeraWulf becomes exercisable one year after that.

We told you in February that we believe the stake would be worth well in excess of our initial cash proceeds. A signed 20-year lease with two 5-year extensions and a high-quality tenant goes a long way towards proving that out, and Century has no obligation to fund any part of the development cost. The anticipated monetization time line of our 6.8% stake lines up reasonably well with the construction in Oklahoma, making it a further potential source of capital to help fund Century's share of that project if needed.

Turning finally to our new Oklahoma smelter project with our joint venture partner, Emirates Global Aluminum. We made further progress in the second quarter. Bechtel continues its detailed engineering work. We advanced negotiations toward a final energy contract, and we made significant progress on the financing for the smelter. Those three items, the final energy contract, detailed engineering and financing are the near-term milestones we are focused on, and we continue to expect FID and groundbreaking by the end of this year, with first hot metal by the end of 2029.

That brings me to Page 12 and what I think is the most important policy development of the quarter. On July 20, President Trump issued a new executive order establishing an incentive for companies to build or expand primary aluminum production here in the United States. Under the program, approved companies will be able to annually import primary aluminum up to the amount of the new production they are building at a reduced tariff rate of 25% versus the 50% rate that would otherwise apply to imports. I want to underline what this represents. The Section 232 program first leveled the playing field for American producers and workers. In April, the Trump administration closed the valuation loopholes that importers have been using to get around it. And now with this order, the program goes a step further and actually incentivizes the companies that are putting capital in the ground to build new American capacity. Each step is built on the last and each has been enforced with no exceptions and no exemptions.

For Century, the effect is direct. We expect the Oklahoma project to be approved under the program to import up to 750,000 metric tons at the reduced 25% rate beginning in 2027. That will be split 60% to EGA and 40% to Century. That means Century could begin importing up to 300,000 metric tons per year at the reduced rate starting in 2027, and we intend to apply that benefit to help fund Century's share of the Oklahoma project. This is another well-designed piece of policy, and we are grateful to President Trump and his team for their support and commitment to restoring production of American aluminum. Taken together, a balance sheet where our cash now exceeds our total debt, the tariff benefit under the new executive order and the value we have created at Hawesville. Century has real and growing balance sheet capacity to fund its share of the Oklahoma project as well as to pursue other opportunities and priorities to create best-in-class value for our shareholders.

To wrap up, earlier this year, we said we would have every asset running full by the end of July, and we did it. Next, we intend to bring the first new American smelter in nearly 50 years out of the ground. No company is investing more to restore American primary aluminum production than Century. We are already the largest producer of aluminum in the United States. We employ more American primary aluminum workers than any other company. And thanks to President Trump's leadership and the Section 232 program, we are investing billions more in new and expanded production in Mt. Holly and in Oklahoma. We are laser-focused on execution.

We thank you for your time, and we look forward to taking your questions today.

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities.

Just first wanted to ask about the executive order, kind of where you'll ultimately source the metal and just how you value this benefit in terms of EBITDA and cash flow.

Yes. As I mentioned, the executive order is very important and provides a nice opportunity for Century and of course, anyone else who's investing in new U.S. aluminum production. For us, there'll be a number of different sources that we believe we will source the metal from. Obviously, our own resources in Iceland, but we anticipate also other sources. But what we'll do is commerce will ultimately promulgate some rules [indiscernible] and we'll wait for those to come out, and then we'll give you the final analysis there.

Just to scope the opportunity for us. Again, we'll wait for the final opportunity to give hard numbers here. But you can just simply take that reduced tariff level. So if we're paying 25% versus the 50% kind of quick rule of thumb, if you just take that, chose your LME. So today, we're at $32.50, apply that, that will give you a sense of the benefit per ton. And then Century should be able to import our share of the new production, which is 300,000 tons and you just multiply those together, and you can see it would be quite material, the benefit, should be the same on both the EBITDA and cash flow side.

Got it. That's very helpful. Maybe just on the project itself. I mean, it would be good to get an update on the DOE grant. When you would expect for us to have more information there? And then maybe just on financing sources more broadly. What kind of work is ongoing today in terms of project financing? And you mentioned the stake as well at Hawesville also. Curious for your thoughts there.

Sure. Just a reminder on the DOE grant. So that is secured. Of course, there are a number of milestones that we need to work through for the project and DOE to release that grant. But the grant pays out basically dollar for dollar for investments that we make into the project to release that $500 million. So really no change from what we've told you before. Everything remains in place there, all looks good.

On the broader financing picture, we're working on a number of different potential sources. Once those are secured, we'll obviously come out to you with the details. But we're talking with a number of parties, and that includes some potential government sources of financing.

The next question comes from the line of Katja Jancic with BMO Capital Markets.

Jesse, you mentioned multiple -- there are multiple sources of potential cash to finance the smelter. And your free cash flow conversion is expected to improve from here. Can you talk about -- a bit about how you're thinking about shareholder returns at this point, especially with your balance sheet being in a very good place.

Absolutely. So if you just look at Slide 22, as you mentioned, we've had some very strong cash flow generation already. As Pete mentioned, after the quarter, we did receive our $94 million 45X refund as well as another nearly $20 million in insurance recoveries, which puts us in a position where our cash exceeds our total outstanding debt as of the end of July. And you can see also our liquidity at $785 million significantly exceeds our target. So the balance sheet is in a good position, and we anticipate keeping in a very good position, and we've got a lot of opportunity with a lot of cash flow coming in to do so.

We did tell you we would come back to you on capital returns once we clear these targets, and we will. But what we've also said is we had a clear priority for capital allocation. Of course, that's to maintain the liquidity through the cycle, then to ensure we have enough sustaining capital. And then we would look for organic growth opportunities. Obviously, the new smelter in Oklahoma falls into that category. And what we just ask is as we're proving out the final details there, as we're working through the final engineering numbers and CapEx numbers and getting to FID, people remain patient with us. But we do fully anticipate that we will find ourselves in a position where we have plenty of cash to finance the smelter, including our equity piece and also to pursue other priorities, whatever those may be, and of course, including capital returns.

And maybe shifting gears a little bit to Iceland. In 4Q, you're going to install the new transformers. Will that impact production volumes? Or how should we think about that?

Yes. So as I said on the call, we're now back to close to full production, but we are being a little bit conservative with the amount of amperage that we're running through the repaired transformers. This is not -- we're not talking huge amounts. We're pretty close to full production. But once we do get those new transformers installed in Q4, you should see us increase the amperage, which will further increase the volume coming out of Grundartangi, and you'll see it return back to that normalized run rate that you saw before the interruption, that full normalized run rate.

And if I just add, Katja, I think maybe your question was when we start installing them and putting those into service, will we have any interruption of production. And because of the redundancy we'll have with the repaired transformers, we'll come back to you in three months and give you our Q4 outlook, but I wouldn't expect sitting here today any interruption to production.

No, no, there shouldn't be any interruption to production.

The next question comes from the line of Timna Tanners with Wells Fargo.

I wanted to ask about Mt. Holly. First off, you didn't mention them as a potential beneficiary of the new executive order with the 50,000 ton restart. So is that not potentially eligible? Or is it? And then also regarding Mt. Holly, can you quantify the instability and the impact into Q3?

Thanks, Timna. No. Because we are now complete with Mt. Holly and that new production is coming out, we don't anticipate now that being eligible. The program is designed to allow -- as we understand it, at least today can allow -- it's designed to allow imports during the pendency of investment while new production is coming online. But then once it's online, you can't bring in additional imports. So Mt. Holly, given that it's done, we don't anticipate it being eligible today. The instability, as I said, that this is something that sometimes happens during restarts.

Of course, a plant is sort of used to operating at a lower level of production and some of the corollary areas of the plant, so they need to operate at a higher level of production, you have more metal going through the tax house. You have more anodes being produced in the carbon area. And sometimes you get a little instability there. This is nothing material. It's in our Q2 guide. It does have some impact on Q3, Timna. But we do think we'll get it fully resolved in Q3. So then you should actually get a little bit more volume coming back in Q4 than what you're seeing already in Q3.

Okay. Helpful. And my second question, if you could help us understand the dynamics in the new Oklahoma smelter being far away from the situation, we just see the headlines and some of the pushback and debates from the local level. Can you help us understand what's happening there and your conviction, it sounds like it's pretty clear for it moving forward, but I would just like to understand that from your perspective better, please.

Sure. And of course, you can understand the communities want to understand what's going on when the major project gets announced in their area. And I think we're working very closely with the community in Inola and elsewhere in Oklahoma to better understand what their concerns are and to make sure that they have all the facts about our technology and process. And then we're very confident that the smelter will pose no harm to anyone and that everyone will be comfortable with what's going on and get to see the benefits to the state and to the local community of all of the investment and jobs that are created. I mean we're talking very, very substantial benefits to everybody. But we're working closely to understand their concerns and to make sure that they get comfortable.

The next question comes from the line of Matthew Key with Texas Capital.

You mentioned that you'd be completing some power capacity at Jamalco in August. I was wondering if you could maybe help quantify the potential financial benefit there. Would you only experience cost benefits during times of like an energy outage? Or would this be a more sustainable benefit long term?

It's really twofold, Matt. So one, as I mentioned, we will have the ability to be fully self-sufficient in our energy generation within our four walls. In other words, we'll be able to operate as an island within the island, if you will. But of course, under normal circumstances, we will remain connected to the grid for stability reasons. But if there are problems in the grid, then we will be able to operate as an island. The other part of it is the cost savings. So energy is expensive in the Caribbean, of course, and we will be able to generate energy ourselves through TG4 that fully meets our energy needs. So we'll be able to stop those grid purchases going forward from the beginning of August. And you'll see savings. Of course, it depends on where market prices are in Jamalco, what those savings are. But if you kind of think of about a $20 per ton benefit there, that would get you close.

And I would just add, Matt, I already reflected that in the outlook for you on the Q3.

The next question comes from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities.

I just was curious, and sorry if I missed this, if you could just kind of outline some of the working capital unwind and just cash flow considerations in the second half, whether it be on the insurance or other side?

Yes, sure, Nick. I can take that to start. So I talked a little bit about the working capital build this quarter in the second quarter. I didn't quantify the breakdown, but you just think of it as two buckets. One, we brought back Mt. Holly and the expansion to 100% capacity. So you kind of got supplies and inventory growth there and receivables to sort of reflect that. And then you also had -- because of the production increase, we had the conversion of shipments and quarter end is a snapshot in time. So we had some cutoff timing of those shipments. So that was the working capital build in Q2.

And I would say going forward, obviously, you're not going to get back the working capital you need to operate Mt. Holly at 100%. But certainly, you'll get back a good portion of those finished goods inventory sitting on the balance sheet at the end of Q2 in Q3. So that should be a good tailwind of cash. And then really just going forward on cash flow conversion, like I said in my remarks, expecting that to convert even stronger than what we have been thus far as we continue. Like I already said, we have the $94 million from 45X credit. We got an additional $20 million on the insurance recovery, continue to work on that. And then the growth CapEx really falls off. We're complete on the Mt. Holly expansion. We're complete on bringing Line 2 back on in Iceland, and we should only really have sustaining CapEx going forward. So just given where we are on the balance sheet, I think you'll see that strong cash flow conversion going forward.

Got it. That's really helpful, Pete. Maybe just back to Oklahoma. Curious for any update that you might have on just the power contract negotiations. Are there any gating items that you could call out? Or when should we expect to see that finalized ahead of the ultimate FID and groundbreaking later this year?

Yes, Nick, we continue to work really well with our counterparty there, both with our partners, EGA, but also with the utility counterparty in progressing that work. We are making progress. These are complex contracts. They do take some time to get fully negotiated through the lawyers and all of that. But I would just say things continue to move forward well and make good progress. Of course, we'll have that done before we make FID, but I don't really want to handicap it further for now. Just know that we're working hard and continue to make progress.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Jesse Gary for closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. We're proud of the quarter. We look forward to Q3 and what's next to come for Century. Thanks a lot.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Century Aluminum Company First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Chad Grigg, Vice President, Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the first quarter conference call. I'm joined here today by Jesse Gary, Century's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Peter Trpkovski, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared comments, we will take your questions.

As a reminder, today's presentation is available on our website at www.centuryaluminum.com. We use our website as a means of disclosing material information about the company and for complying with Regulation FD.

Turning to Slide 2. Please take a moment to review the cautionary statements with respect to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures in today's discussion.

And with that, I'll hand the call to Jesse.

Thanks, Chad, and thanks to everyone for joining. I'll start today with a discussion of the dynamic global aluminum market and the opportunities that we see for Century going forward to provide secure supply chains into the U.S. and European markets.

I'll then review our first quarter operational performance, including the excellent progress we made on our Mt. Holly expansion project and the restart of Potline 2 at Grundartangi.

Pete will then walk you through our Q1 results and Q2 outlook before I conclude the call with the latest on our new Oklahoma smelter project with EGA.

Just before we get started, I'd like to thank the Century team across our sites for a strong quarter of safety performance, especially while executing major capital projects at each of Grundartangi, Jamalco and Mt. Holly.

You should each be proud, at Century, ensuring that each of our employees returns home safely at the end of their shift is our first priority.

Turning to the market on Page 5. It is certainly obvious to all of those on the call that we find ourselves today in one of the most dynamic markets for aluminum in recent memory. Strong global aluminum demand driven by macro trends in lightweighting and electrification have persisted into 2026 and accelerated into other sectors as demand for power and data infrastructure build-out, commercial aviation and defense and rearmament manufacturing has increased.

In the U.S. specifically, we are already beginning to see increased value-added product demand following President Trump's April 2 executive order that closed valuation loopholes that importers have been using to cheat the Section 232 system, especially in downstream extruded products.

We are grateful to President Trump for taking this additional action to ensure that the entire U.S. aluminum supply chain is able to grow and expand to meet our domestic national security needs with American metal.

As the largest U.S. producer, Century will continue to do its part to invest in expanding and building the U.S. aluminum base, starting with our Mt. Holly expansion and continuing with our Oklahoma smelter project. Back to each of those in a bit.

Turning to the supply side. The importance of ensuring secure U.S. supply chain has never been so evident as today following disruptions in production in the Middle East.

We estimate that approximately 2.5 million tons of production in the Gulf countries has been disrupted by either production curtailments due to raw material shortages arising from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz or direct Iranian drone and missile attacks.

We stand by our industry colleagues who have been so unfairly affected by such attacks. Note that, while the large majority of Middle Eastern metal goes to the European and Asian markets, Century has been supporting our existing U.S. customers that have been impacted by the Middle East disruption through the placement of our expansion tons from Mt. Holly to repair these strained supply lines and ensure our U.S. customers have access to the metal that they need.

The timing of our Mt. Holly restart could not be better in this regard, providing additional American metal units to the domestic market.

As you can see on Slide 6, the Middle Eastern disruption has expanded our expected 2026 global deficit to 1.4 million tons. Over the course of 2026, this supply deficit should lead to further destocking from global inventories, creating a healthy go-forward environment for Century in both the U.S. and Europe.

Turning to Page 4 on operations. Our smelters had an excellent first quarter with strong operating performance across Grundartangi, Mt. Holly and Sebree. We are now moving into a very busy second quarter for the operations team.

The strong operating performance and stability throughout our smelters enabled the timely startup of our expansion project in Mt. Holly and the restart of Potline 2 in Grundartangi last month. Both projects are off to an excellent start.

At Mt. Holly, the team started the first pots 3 weeks ago, and the start-up is progressing on schedule to bring the full expansion project online by the end of June.

As a reminder, this project will increase Mt. Holly's total production to approximately 230,000 metric tons and add over 125 full-time U.S. manufacturing jobs at the plant, increasing total U.S. primary aluminum production by nearly 10%.

As we have discussed in the past, the project should increase Mt. Holly's profitability significantly and fully repay its capital cost by the end of 2026.

Please keep in mind that due to the incremental nature of the restart process, we will not see the full impact of our expanded Mt. Holly production run rate until Q3. We've included the incremental tons that will be produced in Q2 in our Q2 outlook that Pete will cover with you in a bit.

At Grundartangi, we restarted the first pots on Line 2 on April 23, just 1 week after commencement of new pots at Mt. Holly. The restart has gone well, and we remain on schedule to restore all pots on Line 2 by the end of July.

As we discussed last quarter, following the return of all cost to service, the plant will return to nearly full production, but will run on a slightly reduced amperage until our new replacement transformers have arrived and are installed in the fourth quarter.

Our anticipated production for both projects is included in our Q2 outlook and our full year volume guidance shown on Page 16. Pete will give you some additional detail on spending on both projects as well as associated insurance recovery for Grundartani in a minute.

At Jamalco, the refinery continued its recovery from Hurricane Melissa and associated power instability in Q1 and progressed with the commissioning of its new steam generation turbine, which we expect to be completed later this quarter.

The global alumina market has been impacted by the conflict in the Middle East, where smelter closures have temporarily decreased global demand for alumina and weighed on global alumina prices.

At the same time, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has impacted caustic soda and heavy fuel oil prices, although, our HFO hedge book has offset some of this impact.

The plant has been experiencing some lower quality bauxite than expected from certain of its mining areas and is in the process of adjusting its mining plan accordingly.

Finally, Sebree had another excellent quarter of performance in Q1, overcoming higher energy prices arising from Winter Storm Fern to deliver another strong set of results. Sebree is off to another great start in Q2.

I'd like to extend a special thank you to the entire Century operations and technical teams for their tremendous performance over the last 6 months to enable these 2 major projects at Mt. Holly and Grundartangi to proceed successfully at the same time.

Their skill and hard work has delivered these projects on or ahead of schedule, bringing significant production back into a market facing significant disruption from elsewhere in the world. This is not easy, and our team has knocked it out of the park.

Pete will now take you through our first quarter financial performance and Q2 outlook.

Thank you, Jesse. I'll begin with a review of our Q1 financials and then cover the restart of operations in Mt. Holly and Grundartangi, along with an update on business interruption insurance in Iceland. I'll conclude with our Q2 outlook.

Turning to Slide 8. Q1 shipments totaled approximately 123,000 tons, down sequentially due to Line 2 in Iceland being offline for the full quarter following its idling in late October 2025.

Net sales reached $649 million, an increase of $15 million, primarily driven by higher LME prices and regional premiums despite lower shipment volumes.

Net income was $338 million or $3.23 per share, while adjusted net income, excluding exceptional items, was $171 million or $1.63 per share.

Exceptional items included the unrealized derivative losses, restart expenses at Mt. Holly, a gain on the Hawesville transaction and business interruption in Iceland.

Adjusted EBITDA was $231 million for the quarter, driven by higher LME and regional premiums, improved operating expenses and favorable sales mix. These gains were partially offset by higher energy prices and raw material costs.

Our cash balance stood at $332 million, including the cash proceeds from the Hawesville sale. We continue to prioritize debt reduction. And to this end, $8 million of industrial revenue bonds were paid down using the Hawesville proceeds.

As a result, net debt declined to $220 million, below our target of less than $300 million. This positions us well as we move into a period of strong organic growth and capital-intensive spending to add production volume at Mt. Holly and Grundartangi.

Turning to Page 9. Adjusted EBITDA rose by $60 million in Q1 to $231 million. Realized LME was $2,900 per ton, up approximately $285 from last quarter. The U.S. Midwest premium increased to $2,200 per ton, up approximately $420 and the European premium climbed $80 to approximately $310 per ton. Combined, these prices added $85 million versus the prior quarter.

As anticipated, energy and raw materials were a headwind this quarter. We experienced higher-than-normal winter power prices for Sebree following winter storm burn, and we have begun to see input cost pressure across the other raw materials, including heavy fuel oil and caustic for the alumina refinery as well as coke and pitch for the smelters.

Operating expenses were favorable over prior quarter as spend related to the restart and expansion projects will now mainly hit in Q2, along with the metal units.

Volume and sales mix were favorable as our annual sales contracts went into effect, reflecting an uplift in billet sales as anticipated.

Now let's turn to Slide 10 and look at cash flow. We began the quarter with $134 million in cash. We generated $231 million in adjusted EBITDA from operations and closed on the sale of Hawesville receiving $200 million in proceeds before fees.

We continue to accrue 45X tax credits with $198 million receivable as of March 31 for full year 2023 and 2025 U.S. production as well as now the first 3 months of 2026. We expect to receive our full year 2025 amount of approximately $94 million in the next few months as we just filed our full year '25 tax return with the IRS last week.

Quarterly CapEx totaled $76 million, of which $71 million is related to investment for Mt. Holly expansion and Grundartangi restart of Line 2, plus our new power generation unit, TG4 at Jamalco. We expect a similar amount of CapEx in Q2 to finish these projects and then should return to more normalized levels.

Insurance recoveries in Q1 trailed claims by $38 million, which reduced cash flow from adjusted EBITDA. This is primarily timing. And in early April, we did receive an additional $46 million advance from our insurers, which is not reflected here in our Q1 results.

We have received a total of $83 million in insurance recoveries to date. We continue to expect payments to lag 1 to 2 quarters behind our submitted insurance claims.

Semi-annual interest payments were made in Q1 related to our senior secured notes and hedge settlements for $14 million. We remain focused on debt reduction, having repaid our industrial revenue bonds following the Hawesville transaction.

Lastly, on cash flow. Working capital increased due to higher pricing and timing of payments on our major raw materials and customer receipts. We ended Q1 with $332 million in cash, reaching our net debt goal of under $300 million with strong liquidity in place.

We have reached this position despite cash timing mismatch in insurance reimbursements in Iceland and 45X tax credits in the U.S., which should further improve our cash position from here over the next 2 quarters. This strong cash and liquidity position supports our continued short-term focus in Q1 and Q2 on our expansion project at Mt. Holly as well as restarting Line 2 in Iceland and investing in the new steam generation turbine at Jamalco.

Now, let's turn to Slide 11 and I look ahead to the next 90 days. For Q2, our lagged LME and regional premiums are expected to be up across all 3 components. We expect a realized LME of $3,175 per ton, a lagged U.S. Midwest premium of $2,450 per ton and the European duty pay premium of $485 per ton in Q2. Taken together, the lagged LME and delivery premium changes are expected to have an $85 million to $95 million increase to Q2 adjusted EBITDA when compared with Q1 levels.

Note that, due to our contractual lags, realized LME and premiums will be below spot levels in Q2. Current spot prices should then provide a further tailwind when they roll through our Q3 results.

We expect U.S. energy prices to improve by $15 million from prior quarter as power prices moderated after the effects of winter storm burn. This benefit is partially offset by heavy fuel oil prices that have risen with the broader oil price increase since the Middle East conflict started.

Looking at our other raw materials, we expect increases in our coke, pitch and caustic prices. As Jesse mentioned, we also expect to see some Jamalco cost and volume headwinds from lower bauxite quality impacting our overall alumina input costs. Taken together, we see a headwind of $10 million sequentially.

We expect operating expenses to increase $15 million to $20 million into Q2 in part to match increased production at Mt. Holly and Grundartangi. In addition, as normal around this time of year, we also have some additional seasonal costs as we hire summer help across all of our assets.

Volume and sales mix is expected to improve by $15 million to $20 million as we begin to see the incremental benefit of the additional Mt. Holly volume ramping up. We will not reach our full run rate volume impact from the Mt. Holly expansion and Grundartangi restart until Q3.

The volume from these projects, especially the additional Mt. Holly tons will be an additional tailwind to the third quarter results. All told, at expected realized prices, we expect Q2 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $315 million to $335 million.

And with that, I'll hand the call back to Jesse.

Thanks, Pete. As we discussed last quarter, Century is ready to capitalize on the significant opportunities in front of us to add production in a market that is becoming increasingly short due to rising demand. This need for additional production has now significantly increased with the smelter disruptions in the Middle East.

In Europe, the restored tons we are bringing on in Iceland will supply additional metal units and especially value-added products into a rising European duty paid premium environment that has now been exacerbated by the significant reduction in imports from the Middle East and Africa.

In the U.S., the Mt. Holly expansion is already stepping in to fill disrupted offshore supply chains for our key domestic customers. By the end of July, for the first time in over a decade, all Century assets should be operating at full production capacity.

The need for secure supply chains has never been more clear. Disruptions in the Middle East to both production capacity, but also to free transit itself are leading supply chains across a multitude of commodities strained and unable to deliver to intended markets.

In an increasingly complex world, it is imperative that we are able to meet our domestic needs for critical minerals with domestic production.

To this end, Century and our joint venture partner, Emirates Global Aluminum continued to advance our Oklahoma smelter project in Q1, retaining Bechtel to complete the next stage of engineering work, advancing power discussions in Oklahoma and making significant progress on financing discussions, which we expect will result in a final investment decision and groundbreaking by the end of the year.

The Oklahoma smelter is being designed with EGA's state-of-the-art EX smelting technology and will be the first smelter in the world to use this technology. At 750,000 metric tons, the new smelter will more than double total U.S. aluminum production and will restore domestic production of military-grade high-purity aluminum.

The restoration of domestic military grade production is of ever-increasing importance as we emphasize rearmament following the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Truly, once built, the Oklahoma smelter will be amongst the most efficient and advanced in the world and the crown jewel of the U.S. industrial base. No company is investing more to restore U.S. aluminum production than Century.

Century is already the largest producer of aluminum in the United States, employing more American primary aluminum workers than any other company. And thanks to President Trump's leadership and the Section 232 program, we plan to invest billions more in new and expanded production at Mt. Holly in our Oklahoma smelter project.

Thanks for joining the call today, and we look forward to taking your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your question from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley Securities.

Obviously, a lot of volatility right now in the Middle East and some severe disruptions. I was just wondering if you could touch on if you've had any opportunities to take market share while some of these tons have been out of the market. And then my follow-up question was really just what your dialogue with EGA has looked like, if there's been any -- if there could be any change in scope of the project just on the back of all of these disruptions.

Nick, thanks a lot. Good question. So as I said on the call, our focus since the conflict started and since the supply lines have become a bit strained has been to fill in the needs of our existing customer base where they may be sourcing from other sources outside the U.S. and filling those in mainly with Mt. Holly tons, but also some unpriced or unallocated tons that we came into the quarter with.

So we've been able to do a good job with that, again, prioritizing our existing customers first; and second, working with new customers where we have excess metal to do that. All in all, I'd say the market has been orderly and -- but it's really been helped by those additional Mt. Holly tons to fill in where needed.

Turning to the project, our conversations with EGA around the new Oklahoma smelter, I think it's fair to say are both full go. We both remain very excited about the new project and are working hard to make it happen. So without speaking for EGA, there really has been no change as far as I can tell in our interest in the project, and we've had full engagement, and I think both parties are very committed to make that project happen.

Your next question from the line of Katja Jancic with BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe first, just on 2Q guide, the OpEx side. I think Peter you mentioned that some of that is seasonal. Does that mean that some of that will reverse in 3Q? Can you talk a bit about that, please?

Yes, Katja, it's Pete. That's exactly right. As I was saying, typically around this time of year, when we look across our footprint, we tend to have seasonality in our operating expenses, mainly around getting some summer help in the door and training that goes along with that. So you see those costs in our Q2 guide.

And then coming out of the summer into Q3 and out of the summer months, we'll sort of reverse back to our normalized run rate of operating expenses. And that really applies to the whole footprint.

And is that -- so that means the full $15 million to $20 million would reverse?

No, it's not the full amount. It's probably a portion of that. We didn't break it out exactly, but it's probably half or less than that.

The rest of that, Katya, is just matched with the expanded Mt. Holly tons coming online, right? So we're going to get incremental revenues from Mt. Holly tons, but obviously, you have some incremental OpEx to produce those tons as well.

Okay. And then you talked about 2Q not fully benefiting from the current spot market plus the -- you're not going to see the full volume from Iceland and Mt. Holly. Can you provide a bit more of what the incremental potential could be in the current spot environment, assuming both of those assets are fully up and running?

Yes, sure, Katy. I'd be happy to. As you saw on the outlook, we tend to give what our expected realized prices are for the quarter. In Q2, we're not fully priced yet as we just here in the first week of May. So we have the balance of May to go on our revenue and obviously the balance of the quarter on some of our power prices and things like that.

But if you just look at our 3 revenue components, the major revenue components, the LME global aluminum price, the U.S. Midwest premium, the European duty pay premium, all 3 today are higher than what we expect to realize in Q2. So if you just look ahead at that page and where we are in the spot market, you can easily see an additional $400 per ton of LME improvement at spot, maybe another $75 per ton at spot for Midwest premium. And then maybe another $100 per ton in uplift in European prices.

So if you just, again, traditionally, we refer to the sensitivities in the back. And if you look at those quick math, I think that's in the $70 million to $75 million range for just those 3 revenue components.

So again, if you took the Q2 guide midpoint, $325 million and you sort of mark at the spot, you can see a $400 million quarterly run rate level, but that doesn't include the full impact we will have and expect in Q3 from the full Mt. Holly uplift.

So $400 million probably is a good number to take away, plus some additional uplift from the Mt. Holly restart expansion project.

Your next question comes from Matthew Key with Texas Capital.

I apologize if this was addressed in your prepared remarks, but I wanted to touch on capital allocation and if there's any potential for capital returns to shareholders over the course of this year if the current market environment holds?

The simple answer to that, Matt, is yes. But if you flip to Page 21, you can see our capital allocation framework. And obviously, now, as you see on this slide, you can see that we've now met both our liquidity targets and our net debt targets.

So as we said, once we reach that stage, which we're at today, we first look and prioritize sustaining CapEx and next look to our high-return organic investments that we have available to us.

Of course, in Q1 and Q2, we're very pleased to be able to expand Mt. Holly to a very high-return organic investment project. And then we're also in the process of restarting Grundartangi. There, of course, we'll ultimately recover the cash from our insurance proceeds. But as Pete said, those proceeds are trailing spend by about 1 to 2 quarters.

So for Q1, Q2, it was clear to us the best allocation of our excess cash was to these 2 projects in line with our framework. We spent about $71 million of investment CapEx or restart CapEx in Q1. We expect about a similar level in Q2. We also paid down some debt this quarter.

And then coming out of Q2, we should largely be done with these investments and be in a really good position to start generating more cash. So in addition to that, just keep in mind, we'll also -- we also expect to receive our 2025 45X payment over the next few months, plus we'll catch up on any outstanding Grundartangi insurance recoveries over this period.

Plus you should start to get back some of that working capital build that we've seen this past quarter from rising prices running through our AP and AR. So we think that cash generation should be looking very good going forward, and we'll continue to look for the best and best use of that cash.

As you know, our priority first will be to fund more high-return organic investments. But otherwise, we'll definitely look at capital returns.

Got it. That's super helpful. I appreciate that. And just as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about the $500 million DOE grant for the new Oklahoma smelter. I'm curious, does that get applied at the project level? Or does Century get 100% of that grant?

So we'll give the full detail of the capital breakdown and structure for the Oklahoma progress once we make that final investment decision. But we have worked with DOE to be sure that it will be able to work with the Oklahoma project, and we have full confirmation of that from DOE.

So we're in good shape. That grant will reduce the overall cap of that project, and we'll get into further breakdown once we make that final investment decision and share that with you.

Your next question comes from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research.

Congratulations on the all the good times. I guess, it's real hard to figure out the big picture in terms of politics in the world. So let's ask a couple outside the box kind of questions.

Over the history of Century, the company hasn't always earned profits. Now that things are good, would you consider issuing 10 million shares, putting $600 million equity on the books, being ready to double the Oklahoma smelter if your partner wanted or if tariffs got abolished in 2029 under a different president, you'd have an equity cushion.

Thanks, John. Good out-of-the-box question for sure. We are very pleased with the cash -- both the performance of the business and the overall state of the balance sheet. I think we've made substantial progress on that over the past several years and the past couple of quarters. And we're really just grateful to find ourselves in a situation that we are to be looking at these very profitable investments that we have in front of us, and we're very excited about those investments.

So I think to your overall question, are we interested in making sure that we'll be able to make those things happen? Of course. But we also see our outlook, the significant cash generation that we have in front of us, and we feel pretty good about where we stand from a balance sheet perspective, especially as we continue to deliver over the next couple of quarters.

So in terms of the Oklahoma project, if it's say, escalated to $5 billion because usually things cost more and your share is $2 billion and the government has helped you for $0.5 billion, would we -- should we expect something like half of the remainder to be funded by cash flow and half by debt? Or how do you think? What's your game plan for writing the checks?

Well, we'll share the final game plan as we continue to advance the project. And once we make the final investment decisions, we'll give you the full breakdown of both how we plan to finance the smelter, timeline for building the smelter, final CapEx numbers, all of that will come once we're able to make that final decision. So stay tuned for that.

I guess, what I would just say to you is there are a variety of really good financing opportunities that are out there in the marketplace and available to these types of projects. And so we're excited about the types of things we're seeing as we start to do some of that planning on how we will finance a project like this. And I think everyone will be quite pleased once we're able to share what we achieve.

Your next question from the line of Timna Tanners with Wells Fargo.

I wanted to drill down a little bit, if I could, on the power agreement for the Oklahoma smelter. As we understand that's the biggest issue for the smelter. And we also have heard that the local utility discussions are moving along nicely. Can you expand a bit more on what you're seeing there and what that might look like?

And we've heard that maybe it could look like some of the other power agreements around the world that are levered to the LME. Just curious if you could give us a bit more detail on it, please.

Sure. I guess what I can say, Timna, is we've been very pleased with the great business environment that we found in Oklahoma, Governor Sit as well as the whole Oklahoma delegation. You can tell they really want to bring businesses and jobs to Oklahoma, and that's been a great incentive for us to look to locate the smelter there. And I think I can say that for both ourselves and our partners.

And we have spent a lot of time negotiating with PSO, which is the local utility in Oklahoma. Those negotiations are continuing to make good progress. And I think both sides are eager to bring those to a conclusion so that we can bring the substantial development to the state and all the jobs and all the economic impacts that will come from that.

So I don't want to get ahead of ourselves and talk about what the exact structure of what that power contract might look like. But I can say we're making good progress, and we're excited to get that project moving.

Okay. Great. And then I guess just to, I guess, beat a dead horse here on the capital allocation. I mean, when you go through the many moving parts of the 45X payment and more to come, the working capital unwind, the insurance on a lag and what we know today of the big aluminum price, the massive shortfall in aluminum supply globally, I mean that does seem to set up for a pretty big cash outflow or ability to deploy capital in the second half.

Should we expect more color on the use of capital on your next call? Or when might we get more detail? When should we expect that?

Yes, Timna, that's a very fair question. And I think as you laid it out, we do just find ourselves in this very dynamic time in the global market, both from -- in the aluminum markets themselves and then with Century specifically, given all of our investment projects and all the work we're doing to bring all of this additional tons online in addition to the Oklahoma project we just talked about.

So we thought, given all that and especially given the sort of cash spend that we needed to do to bring those tons online, it made sense to allocate the excess cash these 2 quarters to that.

As that starts to clear up, and you laid out pretty clearly a lot of those items that should be cleared out over the next couple of months before we talk again, I think the landscape will become simpler, and we'll be able to provide more color on that next call.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Jesse Gary for closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. We remain laser-focused on completing these 2 projects in South Carolina and in Iceland, as well as our progress in Jamaica and Oklahoma. And we've got a lot going on. We plan to deliver and look forward to talking to everybody in August. Thanks a lot.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the Century Aluminum Company Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Matt, and I'll your moderator for today's call [Operator Instructions]. I'd now like to pass the conference over to our host, Chad Rigg, Vice President of Finance and Treasurer.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the fourth quarter conference call. I'm joined here today by Jesse Gary, Century's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Peter Trpkovski, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared comments, we will take your questions. As a reminder, today's presentation is available on our website at www.centuryaluminum.com. We use our website as a means of disclosing material information about the company and for complying with Regulation FD. Turning to Slide 2. Please take a moment to review the cautionary statements with respect to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures in today's discussion. And with that, I'll hand the call to Jesse.

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Thanks, Chad. Thanks to everyone for joining. I'll start today with a discussion of Century's leading position in the American aluminum market, including exciting developments on our Oklahoma smelter partnership with EGA and the redevelopment of the Hawesville site into an AI digital infrastructure campus. I'll then review our Q4 operational performance, including good news on the timing of the restart of line 2 at Grundartangi before concluding my initial remarks with a review of the outstanding global market conditions that we are operating in today.

Pete will then walk you through our Q4 results and Q1 outlook. Before I conclude the call with a discussion on the significant tailwinds we see for the company in 2026, including our Mt. Holly expansion project. No company is more dedicated to U.S. aluminum production in Century. Century is already the largest producer of aluminum in the United States, smelting nearly 60% of the country's primary aluminum, employing more American primary aluminum workers than any other company, and thanks to President Trump's leadership and the Section 232 program, we plan to invest billions more in new and expanded production at Mt. Holly and our Oklahoma smelter project. This has all been enabled by President Trump and the administration's policies, including the Section 232 program, which continues to be enforced with no exceptions and no exemptions.

This sacred program has leveled the playing field for American aluminum producers and workers. And now for the first time in a generation, is leading to the reshoring of production of this critical mineral and a new modern smelter in Oklahoma. Century is grateful to President Trump for his leadership, and we intend to continue to invest in America as the largest supplier of this critical mineral in the United States for decades to come.

To this end, Century made substantial progress on our new smelter project in 2025, culminating in our recently announced partnership with EGA to build the first new smelter in the U.S. in nearly 50 years. By combining efforts with EGA, we will pair Century's significant operating and supply chain expertise in the U.S. with EGA's world-class expertise in aluminum pelting technology, construction and operation.

As partners in Oklahoma Smelter, EGA will own 60% and Century will own 40% and the project will benefit from our previously announced $500 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The project recently retained Bechtel to complete the next stage of engineering work, which should enable a final investment decision in groundbreaking by the end of the year. In addition, the Oklahoma smelter will be the first new smelter built with EGA's state-of-the-art EX smelting technology, which will integrate cutting-edge Industry 4.0 and AI applications into the design and operation of the smelter and is expected to improve production capacity by over 20% from previous technology.

This has allowed us to increase the expected size of the smelter to 750,000 metric tons which alone will more than double total U.S. aluminum production and expand Century's position as the largest American producer. Truly, once built, the Okalhoma Smelter will be amongst the most efficient and advanced in the world and the crown jewel of the U.S. industrial base. We were also very pleased earlier this month to announce the sale and redevelopment of the Hawesville site into a digital infrastructure campus, supporting high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads by Terra Wolf. This was an excellent result for the site and the community, which will benefit from the significant investment in job creation that will come from the data center development.

Under the terms of the transaction, Century received $200 million in cash and a 6.8% interest in the completed data center. We are very glad to retain the stake in the future of the Hawesville site which will allow us to participate in the value creation of a cutting-edge AI data center with ready access to 482 megawatts of immediately available power. The speed to power possibilities of the site have driven lots of immediate demand from hyperscalers and should drive desirable lease rates for the site and Terra Wolf has indicated it could have a data center online by the second half of 2027.

We are confident that this equity state should provide returns well in excess of the initial cash payment. Our 6.8% interest does not require any additional funding towards the multibillion-dollar data center build-out, and we have the right to put our interest to Terra wealth on the first anniversary of data center operations commencing providing a certainty of exit should we so choose.

Turning to Page 4 on operations. We saw excellent performance across our smelter assets in the fourth quarter with Grundartangi quickly and safely restoring stability following the outage of Hotline 2 and Mt. Holly returning to the strong performance we have come to expect from the plan. I would like to take a specific moment to commend the team at Sebree, who battled through some tough weather in the fourth quarter to conclude a record year for the smelter across a suite of KPIs and profitability metrics.

To be able to achieve record performance after 50 years of operations is a testament to plant management and our entire workforce at Sebree. Congratulations to all. At Jamalco, as everyone knows, in late October, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane. Our team did a good job preparing the plan, which included exercising their precautionary shutdown procedures ahead of the store. This prepared has paid off as the refinery made it through the storm without significant damage and without separating a single injury.

Following the storm, the plant was able to quickly restart basic operations. Damage to the broader Jamaican grid, however, did create significant instability in the supply of electrical power to the refinery, including lengthy periods where the refinery was without external power at all. This instability in electrical supply led to higher-than-expected costs in November and December and lower production volumes from a number of outages and a slower return to full capacity.

Good news is the refinery is now well on its way to full and stable production. Importantly, at Jamalco, we are also nearing completion of our first major capital improvement project at the plant with the installation of our new on-site power generation turbine own as TGI on track to be completed in April. Once complete, TGIV will enable us to run the refinery with entirely self-generated energy, eliminating expensive purchases from the Jamaican grid and allowing us to run the entire refinery independently.

The completion of TGIV, which will gradually ramp up over the second quarter, will substantially lower the cost structure of the refinery and is a big part of our overall goal of returning the refinery to the second quartile of the global cost curve. Nice job to the Jamalco team on keeping this project safe and on track despite the hurricane. Turning to Iceland. We have good news to report at Grundartangi, where our global team is working tirelessly to return the smelter to full production much faster than originally anticipated. As we announced in October, the Grundartangi smelter was forced to temporarily stop production in potline 2 following the failure of 3 of its electrical transformers and the time line for restart was dependent on how quickly replacement transformers could be manufactured, shipped and installed at Grundartangi.

With global supply chains for transformers stressed by the unprecedented demand from global data center construction, we continue to expect it will take until Q4 of this year for the new replacement transformers to be installed. The replacement transformers have all been ordered and are being manufactured now. The good news here is we now expect that we will be able to repair some of the damage transformers and begin to restart Line 2 at the end of April, about 6 months sooner than originally anticipated.

We still plan to install the new replacement transformers once they are completed, but we are confident that the repair transformers will allow us to return the line to close to full production in the interim. While we will be conservative in our ramp-up plans and operations to avoid undue stress on the repair transformers, we expect that Line 2 and Grundartangi as a whole, will return to close to full production by the end of July. This schedule and our anticipated production is included in our full year volume guidance shown on Page 12. Finally, our insurers have now confirmed coverage from the event and the subsequent business interruption as we anticipated.

We have recently received our first payment under these insurance policies, and we expect to receive additional payments under the policies on a lag as the claim is processed month by month through the end of the year. Pete will keep you updated as the cash comes in. If you turn to Page 5, let's take a minute to review the excellent market conditions that we find ourselves in before I turn it over to Pete. Aluminum prices continue to rise in Q4 and into Q1 as global demand growth paired with a persistently challenged supply side, drove aluminum prices to a 4-year high of 3,325 in January, with spot prices today of approximately 3,100.

The concurrent rally in copper and other industrial metals are providing additional support to the aluminum price rally. As you can see on Page 6, we continue to project global deficit of aluminum units in 2026 and driving further contraction of global inventories to another post financial crisis low and leaving the market exposed to further supply disruptions. A good example of the supply side challenges is the recent confirmation that the 580,000 metric ton Mozal smelter in Mozambique will curtail full operations in March causing a further drop in global inventories in order to replace those units in the market.

The [indiscernible] is likely to have the largest impact on the European regional premium as it is 1 of the largest suppliers of low-carbon aluminum to Continental Europe. Mozal like Grundartangi benefits from tariff-free access to the EU market but replacement units will likely need to be sourced from tariff countries, putting further upward pressure on the EU duty paid premium and providing a benefit to other European producers like Grundartangi.

The European premium has already begun rising following the initial implementation of Europe's carbon border adjustment tax, otherwise known as C-band. In the U.S., the increasing strength of the U.S. economy, as demonstrated by strong industrial manufacturing activity and end user demand, and improving building and construction data has continued to drive the Midwest premium higher in Q4 and into Q1. Power and data infrastructure build-out should continue to drive additional aluminum demand in both the U.S. and globally. Midwest and European spot premiums have climbed to $1.4 per pound and $365 per ton, respectively, as of today. Pete will now take you through our financial performance for Q1 and full year outlook.

Thank you, Jesse. I will start by outlining our year-end financial results and cash flow. I'll then address the timing of cash flows from the business interruption losses in Iceland, followed by a discussion of proceeds from Hawesville, including our joint venture stake in the new data center project. Finally, I'll provide our Q1 outlook and highlight key expectations for the full year 2026.

Let's turn to Slide 8 and review our Q4 performance. On a consolidated basis, fourth quarter shipments totaled approximately 140,000 tons, a decrease from the prior quarter due to the line loss in Iceland. Net sales for the quarter were $634 million, a $2 million increase sequentially and primarily due to higher realized LME and Midwest premium, partially offset by lower shipments.

For the quarter, we reported net income of $1.8 million or $0.02 per share. Our adjusted net income was $128 million or $1.25 per share, excluding exceptional items. Exceptional items mainly comprised of adjustments for share-based compensation, unrealized losses on derivative contracts, business interruption losses in Iceland and the impact of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $171 million, primarily attributable to higher LME and regional premiums as well as improved operating expenses and increased volume at Mt. Holly from Q3 levels. During the quarter, we continued to strengthen our balance sheet. We ended the period with a cash balance of $134 million. As previously communicated, the proceeds from the refinancing of senior notes were utilized to fully repay the remaining Iceland Casthouse facility debt in Q4, further simplifying our capital structure and reducing net debt to $421 million.

Now let's turn to Page 9, and I'll provide a breakdown of adjusted EBITDA results from Q3 to Q4. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter increased $70 million to $171 million. Realized LME of $2,615 per ton was up $105 versus prior quarter, realized U.S. Midwest premium of $0.80 a pound or $1,775 per ton was up $350 and and higher European premium was up $35 per ton to $230.

Taken together, LME and regional premium pricing contributed an incremental $59 million compared with the prior quarter. Energy costs were flat in Q4 as anticipated. Alumina and our other T raw materials were in line with our previously provided outlook. As mentioned on our last call, improved operational performance at Mt. Holly, increased volume and lowered operating costs, improving adjusted EBITDA by $10 million and $5 million, respectively, compared to Q3.

Now let's turn to Slide 10 for a look at cash flow. We began the quarter with $151 million in cash. During the fourth quarter, we generated operating cash flow of $170 million and received our 45x check for fiscal year '24 in the amount of $75 million, as mentioned on our last call. We continue to accrue 45x tax credits. As of December 31, we have a receivable of $173 million related to full year 2023 and 2025 U.S. production.

We expect to receive the majority of this credit in cash shortly after our tax filing sometime in Q2. During the fourth quarter, we reduced net debt by $54 million. This reduction was primarily due to the repayment of the outstanding Iceland Casthouse notes partially offset by the mismatch in timing from lost margin at Grundartangi. The Iceland revolver draw reflects increased working capital needs as business interruption losses started to accumulate when Grundartangi line went down in late October.

As Jesse mentioned, we now have confirmation of coverage from our insurers Grundartangi and we will have received a reimbursement of close to $40 million in Q1. We expect to receive insurance reimbursements on about a 1- to 2-quarter lag from our realized business interruption losses. We funded $34 million of capital expenditures in the quarter that went towards the new power generator and other ongoing investments at Jamalco, the initial payments for new replacement transformers in Iceland as well as sustaining CapEx at the smelters.

We had $15 million in hedge settlements during the quarter. At year-end, the company paid $18 million in withholding taxes on share-based compensation. Finally, we had a working capital build this quarter due to the timing of LME-linked alumina shipments. We ended Q4 with $134 million in cash and strong liquidity in place to support our continued focus on restarting idle capacity at Mohali to increase U.S. aluminum production by 10%. As Jesse mentioned, we made good progress in Q4 on planning the restart of line 2 at Grundartangi, where, amongst other things, we ordered 3 new transformers to replace the FAL units. The cash flow timing mismatch from Grundartangi restart spend and lost margin in Q4 and the insurance recoveries received in Q1 and left us short of our capital allocation targets at year-end.

We are on track to exceed those capital allocation targets in Q1, and we would expect to come back to you on our Q1 call with detail on our go-forward capital allocation plans in line with the guidance Jesse shared with you all on our Q3 call. Our year-end cash does not include the $200 million from the recent sale of Hawesville, which closed in February. In addition, we retained a 6.8% nondilutive stake in the fully completed data center at the site.

Based on current lease pricing, Terra Wolf operating margins for data center colocation facilities and prevailing sector valuation multiples, we believe our 6.8% interest is worth well in excess of our initial cash proceeds. Importantly, Century has no obligation to fund development costs at Hawesville. Now let's turn to Slide 11 and look ahead to the next 90 days. For Q1, the lagged LME of $2,850 per ton is expected to be up about $230 versus Q4 realized prices. The Q1 lagged U.S. newest premium of $2,140 per ton or about $0.97 per pound is up $365 per ton versus Q4.

The European duty paid premium is expected to be about $315 per ton in Q1 or about -- up about $80. Taken together, the lagged LME and delivery premium changes are expected to have a $70 million to $80 million increase to Q1 adjusted EBITDA when compared with Q4 levels. Hawesville offsetting improved revenues was a temporary U.S. energy price spike that lasted about 2 weeks from winter storm firm that impacted prices at Sebree. This approximate 2-week impact had a $20 million adjusted EBITDA headwind at Sebree.

As a reminder, we do have financial hedges that sit below the line and out of adjusted EBITDA that will have a cash settlement. For Q1, we had hedged approximately 25% of our Indiana Hub exposure. Thus, the net cash impact of this 2-week impact is approximately $15 million after considering $5 million of positive hedge settlements. Temperatures have now improved across the Midwest and energy prices have already returned to historical levels.

Looking at our raw materials, we continue to see moderate increases in our coke, pitch and caustic prices. Taken together, we see a small headwind of about $0 to $5 million sequentially. We expect OpEx to be a headwind of $0 to $5 million into Q1 and as we prepare to bring back all of our idle production in Q2. Volume and sales mix should also improve by $5 million as our new sales contracts begin to reflect an uplift in billet sales, as indicated on our last call.

All told, at expected realized prices, we expect Q1 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $215 million to $235 million. Consistent with prior practice, we also include the estimated hedge and tax impacts to help model our business at the bottom of the page. We expect a $10 million to $15 million headwind from realized hedge settlements and a $0 million to $5 million tax expense, both flowing through our Q1 P&L and impacting adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share.

Our appendix details the full hedge book and continues to show the vast majority of LME and regional premium volumes are exposed to market prices. Finally, before I hand it back to Jesse, I'd like to walk through our fiscal year 2026 outlook, which is summarized on Page 12. We expect to ship approximately 630,000 tons of primary aluminum this year. This reflects the partial impact of restarting the remaining 90 pots at Mt. Holly and bringing back line 2 at Grundartangi earlier than previously anticipated. Once completed, our total annualized production levels would be closer to 750,000 tons per year. Turning to capital spending. We expect total CapEx for the year in the range of $115 million to $125 million for both sustaining and investment. This includes $45 million to bring back the last 90 pots at Mt. Pali. This does not include the investment in transformer replacements at Iceland as this capital is expected to be largely offset by insurance proceeds net applicable deductibles.

Across our portfolio, we are making positive high-return investments to improve the performance and profitability of our asset base, including growing production at Mt. Holly and continuing to lower the cost structure of our Jamalco investment. Finally, we expect cash interest to decline in 2026, reflecting lower coupon on our senior notes and simplified capital structure. And with that, I'll hand the call back to Jesse.

Thanks, Pete. Century has an exciting 2026 ahead of us. Strong demand conditions, combined with fundamentally short U.S. and European markets have created large global aluminum deficits and historically low inventory levels. This environment creates a unique opportunity for Century to be able to add production in a market that is otherwise becoming increasingly short. In our other our improved restart time line in Icon should enable Grundartangi to supply additional metal units into a rising EBPP environment caused by the initial implementation of CBAM, and production shortfalls in both Zambique and elsewhere. .

In the U.S., our Mt. Holly restart project is on track to increase U.S. aluminum production by nearly 10% in 2026. The project is progressing on time and on budget, and we expect to begin restarting production in April and to be complete by the end of June. We've already hired over 100 incremental workers who are undergoing training to support the additional production and preparation in the pot lines and other areas of the plant are well advanced.

Combined with our Oklahoma smelter project, -- no 1 is investing more in American Primary Aluminum than Century. We are proud to follow President Trump's lead and to do our part to reindustrialize the U.S. and restore American aluminum expertise and support American workers. It's hard not to peek forward to this summer, where for the first time in over a decade, all of Century's assets will be operating at full production capacity. These units have never been more needed and valuable than in today's resource-constrained world.

Our new and existing production will benefit from strong spot aluminum prices flowing through our contractual lags driving higher realized prices than we have seen at any point in 2025 or year-to-date. At the same time, our total cost structure should be improved as the addition of the TGI power turbine at Jamalco will be complete, lowering Jamalco energy costs and U.S. power prices should have returned to normal following winter storm burn.

2026 is setting up to be a historic year for Century, and we are laser-focused on execution to benefit from the opportunities that are in front of us. Thanks for your time, and we look forward to taking your questions today.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from the line of Nick Giles with B. Riley.

Guys can get on getting the hostile deal with a leading player like Terrata was really good to see. My first question, maybe just to clarify, one, the Q1 guide to $15 million to $235 million, that does add back to EBITDA that would have been recognized from Grundartangi correct?

Nike, it's Pete. That's correct. Similar to how we did on the last call. We are adding back the loss margin at Grundartangi and including that here in our guide. So no further adjustments are required. .

Okay. Great. Great. Appreciate that. Maybe a broader question. Metal tariffs seem well intact here. Midwest premium remains at record high. So it's nice to see you guys continue to benefit from this. But investors really have varying views of whether tariffs hold, where MWP goes -- so my question is, can you just give us a sense of earnings power, not only in the current environment, but maybe other price environments? And what this means for your capital allocation approach? .

Yes. Thanks, Mick. It's Pete again. And that's a great question. As we did on Page 11, we gave you what that $215 million to $235 million gets you from a realized price perspective. And you may have saw in our appendix on Page 18 we included our sensitivities for the major inputs for our business. But just a quick highlights to point out again, referencing Page 11, if you look at our realized LME in that guide of $2,850 per ton.

And you sort of marked it to spot price today, LME is around $3,100 a ton. That's about a $250 per ton increase and you can use the sensitivity to see what that mark is. And continuing on the revenue side, Midwest, again, we used $0.97 per pound in our guide on a realized basis today, it's about $1.04 per pound and that increase will also equate to an uplift in Midwest. And there is a little bit of an uptick in EDPP, the European duty paid premium we used the $315 million for expectation on the guide.

I think spot price today is around $365 per ton. So that's another $50 per ton. So for the 3 major revenue components, again, you took our midpoint of our guide of $225 million. I think that's just a little bit over $50 million, $50 million of uplift when you mark the 3 revenue components to spot. And then don't forget, we had the winter storm firm impact in the first quarter already behind us with temperatures is already moderating.

But as you see here, again, on Page 11, we had an Indiana hub for sea repower price of around $69 estimated. I think if you look at where we are today, it's February 19, we have a good idea of where we are in Q1 and just assume a forward for the balance of Q1 and maybe the forward price looking into Q2, it's about $40 on the screen. So that's about a $30 improvement in Indiana Hub power price, and that sensitivity is going to be just over $20 million.

So sorry, long-winded answer, but just to sum it up for you. in revenue and in power combined, that's about a $75 million uplift from our midpoint if you're taking the guide of $225 million to spot.

Super helpful. I really appreciate that -- maybe my next question, just you're making progress in Oklahoma, good to hear backfills involved. Obviously, 1 of the key aspects will be an energy contract. I think in your initial press release, you used the word progressing -- so I was curious if there's anything you can share on that front? How would you expect that asset to compare to energy costs in the rest of your portfolio? Anything you can add on that process would be really helpful.

Sure, Nick, it's Jesse. And obviously, we're super excited about the Oklahoma project, super excited to be joining with EGA in that joint venture and really I think there's a bright future ahead for that project and what's to come. As we mentioned, we are working on finalizing that power contract with EGA and with PSO, who is the power provider, utility in that region. And we've been engaged, making good progress. There's a lot of support from the state, including from Governor Stip.

And so we just really need to do the work there and get where we need to be. In terms of where we end up on the pricing side, I'm not going to give any guidance there. But what I will say is, obviously, for an investment of this size, that power contract needs to be enabling and attractive to make sure that we can get the return on the investment that's required, and that's obviously a key aspect for us and something that we're driving towards with PSO..

Next question is from the line of Katja Jancic with BMO

Maybe starting on the new smelter. So when you look ahead, what are some of the next milestones beyond the power contracts that we should be looking out for?

Sure, Katy. Thanks. So as I said, working with TGA and as we recently announced, we've hired Bechtel to do the engineering work there. So next steps are finalized that power contract work with Betel to finish the next stage of engineering work, finalize our cost and CapEx structure and as you might imagine, there's a number of other work streams there. But those are really the big ones, finalizing that.

Our contract working through the final stages of engineering work making some progress on the financing for the project and working towards making a final investment decision in Q4 of this year.

And regarding financing options, are you in any discussions with potentially with the government to get or do you qualify for any government type of project level finance beyond the DOE money that you got?

There are a number of financing options able to us, Katy. Some of which are potentially available from the government. So we're working down all those paths simultaneously define whatever is the most attractive package. But we are excited about the various different options outstanding. We do think they will be attractive in the end. And we just need to do the work to bring those to fruition.

Maybe just 1 quick one. I don't know if I missed this, but did you tell us what the assumed margin loss in first cures for the island in the guidance?

No, I didn't say the number specifically. But as you recall, and I think what you saw in the cash flow walk, we had lost margin of million to $50 million in the fourth quarter. And as the prices continue to rise higher, that could have an impact on that number. So no specific guidance on that, but we're just mainly looking at price changes quarter-to-quarter. And just a reminder, Katja, we did start to get the insurance proceeds to offset that lack of cash margin in the quarter.

So we will have the cash in the first quarter sort of lines up nicely with the Q4 loss margin. And as I said on the call earlier, I continue to expect those insurance proceeds to come sort of on a 1- to 2-quarter lag basis.

Next question is from the line of Matthew K. with Texas Capital.

I wanted to touch on the outage at Iceland. What type of capacity utilization should we be expecting over the first half of '26 kind of why we wait for the new transformers I'm just trying to get a sense for shipping cadence out of there. .

Yes. So until that line 2 comes back up, Nick, you're looking right now Line 1, it's producing about 1/3 of the overall Grundartangi volume. So if you just take our normal run rate of 315,000 to 320,000 I take that as a third. That's about where we're getting out of Iceland until Line 2 is back up and running. And then also just keep in mind, in Q2, we're going to be restarting those additional Mt. Holly tons and so those will come on over the course of that quarter, returning that plant to full production.

So really, if you take both Grundartangi and Mt. Holly take yourself to what we're talking about holiday end of June, with respect to -- great into July, we should be entering August running at full production, 100% utilization capacity across the smelters.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And just in regards to the sale of Hawesville and the put option on that data center ownership, do you expect to utilize that ownership or that put option for the ownership to fund the new smelter? Or should we be thinking that thinking of that as more of a long-term investment for the company based on the timing of when those -- both of those projects are expected to come online, I imagine it would be pretty tight window there. But I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. .

Yes, Matt. I think that it does provide a great liquidity option for us and certainty that we will be able to exit should we so choose. But as you can see and even just using the walk that Pete just did marking our current outlook to spot, we will be generating significant EBITDA and cash flow just from the regular operation of the business that should be more than sufficient to cover any financing needs that we need for the new Oklahoma smelter over this time period. But -- so we will just continue then to maximize the value of that Hawesville stake in whatever format it needs to be. But the put option is nice because it does give us certainty of exit should we so wish. We actually are very hopeful that, that stake is going to be quite valuable, and we will continue to either hold that if that's what makes the most sense or we can look to sell or exit to a third party as well if that happens to be what makes sense. So we'll just value maximize there over time. But we're excited to own it. I think it's a great way for us to stay a participant in Hawesville and also should hopefully create a lot of value for shareholders.

Next question is a follow-up from Nick Giles.

Just on the point of when you start to annualize the Q1 guide, it is a significant amount of EBITDA and cash flow. I know there's a lot of noise in the cash flow statement this year with all that's happening, but you're not really going to be spending a lot of the cash in Oklahoma until I assume 2027 at the earliest. So what do you plan to do with the cash in the meantime? Would you be willing to pay down incremental debt between now and then, would shareholder returns be on the table? Just appreciate any commentary around timing?

Sure, Nick. Thanks. Great question. And obviously, on Slide 22 of the appendix, we do have our capital allocation slide, and you have our capital allocation targets. Now as Pete mentioned, in Q1, we should achieve those targets. And as you just said, we should be generating significant cash flow. So we always have the capability to pay down debt. We'll run down and continue to fund our organic CapEx as we have those opportunities. Good examples there, Mt. Holly Restart or TG4 at Jamalco, and we'll continue to be opportunistic when looking at M&A. And then if we do have cash left over, we will look at returns to shareholders. And as I laid out on our Q3 call to give you some idea of the type of returns that we might be looking at.

Awesome, it's good to hear. Maybe just 1 more while I have you. I'm sure it's more obvious to others than it is to me. But -- can you just talk about the logical alumina supply for Oklahoma? Or just kind of remind us what type of excess capacity that you have at your disposal and we can make our assumptions about where that would go. .

Sure. As you know, our current book consists of our own production out of Jamalco, which is a great refinery, great quality of alumina. And so that would be one source that's available. We're also the largest customer of the Gramercy refinery in Louisiana. And we have a number of third-party contracts that we source alumina from. So all of those are potential sources for the new smelter, and we'll work with EGA to determine the best source for the new EX technology there and make sure we're running alumina sources through that maximize the value of that really high-caliber technology we're installing in Oklahoma. But basic answer to your question, Nick, I think there's a number of sources that should be available, including sources within our own control.

[Operator Instructions] There are currently no further questions registered. There are no additional questions waiting at this time. So I'll pass the call back to the management team for any closing remarks.

Thanks, everyone, for joining. Super excited about what 2026 holds for Century and look forward to talking to you all again on the Q1 call. Thanks lot. Bye. .

That concludes the conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's Century Aluminum Company Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Regan, and I'll be your moderator today. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Ryan Crawford with Century Aluminum. Please proceed.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the third quarter conference call. I'm joined here today by Jesse Gary, Century's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Peter Trpkovski, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.

After our prepared comments, we will take your questions. As a reminder, today's presentation is available on our website at www.centuryaluminum.com. We use our website as a means of disclosing material information about the company and for complying with Regulation FD.

Turning to Slide 1. Please take a moment to review the cautionary statements with respect to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures in today's discussion. And with that, I'll hand the call to Jesse.

Thanks, Ryan, and thanks to everyone for joining. I'll start today with a note on safety before turning to our Q3 operational performance, including our time line for resuming full production at Grundartangi. I'll then update you on some of our key strategic initiatives, including progress on the Mt. Holly expansion project, our Hawesville strategic review and our new U.S. smelter project before concluding with a discussion of the outstanding global market conditions that we are operating in today.

Pete will then walk you through our Q3 results and our Q4 guide and provide an update on the receipt of our fiscal year 2024 45X payment from the government, which occurred shortly after quarter end. I'll then end the call with an update on our capital allocation plans.

Safety is core to everything we do here at Century. Every so often, the company is faced with extraordinary events frequently outside of our control that give us an opportunity to live up to our words and demonstrate our commitment to these core safety values. As everyone knows, on October 28, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever make landfall in the Atlantic Basin.

I'm proud to say that through the dedicated planning, hard work and readiness of our Jamaican team members, Jamalco weathered this catastrophic storm, protecting the refinery from any significant damage and most importantly, without suffering a single injury. Not only did the team secure the well-being of the facility and our employees, but then immediately began to provide assistance to the surrounding communities, providing potable water to local towns, villages and hospitals following the storm.

We will continue to work with the government of Jamaica and our partners at Claredon Alumina Partners to identify areas of need and provide support where we can. So we are very proud of the team at Jamalco. I'm pleased to say that production has already restarted at the refinery, and we expect to resume full production over the next couple of weeks. We do not believe that the storm or its aftermath will have any material impact on our financial results.

Turning to Page 3 and operations. As we announced on October 21, the Grundartangi smelter was forced to temporarily stop production in potline 2 following the failure of 2 of its electrical transformers over a 7-week period in September and October. Fortunately, the team at Grundartangi was able to execute a safe and orderly shutdown of the potline despite these failures, tapping down the pots without injuries and leaving the line in as good a shape as possible for restart. These transformer failures were very disappointing as both were well within their expected life. We are working with the designers and manufacturers of the transformers to better understand what caused these failures.

The team at Grundartangi is wasting no time and has already begun preliminary preparations to restart production in Line 2. The time line for restart is dependent on how quickly replacement transformers can be manufactured, shipped and installed. Based on current estimates, we expect that it will take 11 to 12 months for this work to be completed.

Of course, we are working hard to optimize and reduce the time line for restart on several fronts, including the potential to repair and reuse the failed transformers for some time period before the replacement transformers arrive. Although we are not yet certain this approach will be possible, we are working with the designer and manufacturer of these transformers to assess this path. If successful, the repair path could reduce the time line for restart by several months. We will continue to provide you with updates on restart timing on our next earnings call.

Finally, we have submitted initial claims to our insurers and continue to expect that the losses arising from these events will be covered under our property and business interruption insurance policies.

Turning to Mt. Holly. We are pleased to announce last month that we signed an extension to the Mt. Holly power agreement through 2031. In addition to supporting the current operations, the new agreement provides all of the necessary power for our previously announced restart of more than 50,000 metric tons per year of incremental production at Mt. Holly, which will return the plant to full production.

The Mt. Holly restart project is making great progress with hiring and capital work already underway at the site. We continue to expect that we will begin to produce incremental units at the beginning of Q2 2026 and complete the restart by the end of June. Production of the additional units will gradually increase throughout the second quarter.

Unrelated to the restart, we did suffer some instability in Mt. Holly production in Q3 that resulted in production from the plant falling below expectations by approximately 4,000 tonnes in Q3. Pete will provide you with more color on the impact on our Q3 results. This instability was fully resolved by mid-October, and the plant has been operating at normal production levels ever since. We do not expect any further production impact after October.

Finally, at Sebree, we had another quarter of near record performance across a suite of operational and financial KPIs. The plant, our management team and our employees there are really performing at the top of their game, and it's great to see.

Turning to our other strategic initiatives, starting with Hawesville. After our last call, we received a significant amount of additional interest in the site, including from new parties, which led us to extend the strategic review process. We are now proceeding with the final stages of those discussions with new and existing parties now. Suffice to say, there's been lots of excitement around the potential of the site. At the same time, rising aluminum prices and continued global shortages continue to bolster restart economics at the Hawesville site and for our new greenfield aluminum smelter project. Once built, the new smelter project will be amongst the most modern and efficient smelters in the world. It will double the size of the existing U.S. industry, creating over 1,000 full-time direct jobs and over 5,500 construction jobs.

During the quarter, we advanced negotiations with potential power providers. Good progress in this regard means we are now focused on a single site and power provider for the new smelter. We have also had lots of interest from potential joint venture partners for the smelter and have started discussions with select high-quality counterparties. While these conversations are still at the early stages, we are encouraged with the interest levels we have had to date and now see some form of partnership as the most likely path forward with the project.

Altogether, President Trump's policies have enabled a future where we could see U.S. production triple by the end of the decade. We here at Century are proud to do our part to make this future a reality and bring industrial jobs back to America. I'd like to thank President Trump for the significant actions that he and his administration have taken to restore American manufacturing and stand up for American workers. The Section 232 tariffs have truly enabled a new future for the U.S. aluminum industry.

Just before I turn things over to Pete, I'd like to review the very strong market conditions that we are operating in today and that we see persisting well into 2026. As you can see on Page 4, Q3 saw aluminum prices rise across the complex as continued global demand growth paired with a persistently challenged supply side drove realized LME prices of $2,508 in the quarter and continue to drive spot aluminum prices to approximately $2,850 today. As you can see on Page 5, the world has a shortage of aluminum units today, driving further contraction of global inventories to new post-financial crisis lows and leaving the market sensitive to even the slightest supply disruptions or increase in demand. This is especially true in our 2 core markets in the U.S. and Europe.

Regional premiums in the U.S. and Europe both strengthened in Q3 as the fundamentally strong U.S. economy and improving European industrial activity drove demand and caused premiums in both markets to rise, while raw demand in both markets was especially notable driven by the well-publicized power infrastructure build-out. Power and data infrastructure build-out should continue to drive additional aluminum demand as we move forward into 2026.

Realized Midwest and European premiums averaged $1,425 and $193 per ton, respectively, in the quarter and have risen further in Q4 with Midwest premium spot prices at $1,950 and European duty paid premium spot prices at $320 today.

As we start to conclude the 2026 sales season, we are seeing increased demand across our customer base for all of our U.S. billet products. As the largest producer of primary aluminum in the United States, Century stands ready to meet this demand. We now expect that we will see an approximately $0.05 year-over-year increase across our 2026 billet sales, which should generate an additional $30 million of 2026 EBITDA.

Pete will now take you through our financial performance in more detail.

Thank you, Jesse. Let's turn to Slide 7 and review our Q3 performance. On a consolidated basis, third quarter shipments totaled approximately 162,000 tonnes, a decrease from the prior quarter due to brief operational instability at Mt. Holly and the Grundartangi transformer failure.

Net sales for the quarter were $632 million, a $4 million increase primarily due to higher realized Midwest premium, partially offset by lower shipments. For the quarter, we reported net income of $15 million or $0.15 per share. Our adjusted net income was $58 million or $0.56 per share, excluding exceptional items. Adjusted EBITDA was $101 million for the quarter, mainly driven by the increased Midwest premium price, partially offset by lower volumes and product premiums at Mt. Holly in the quarter.

Moving on, we continue to make progress on improving our balance sheet during the quarter. Liquidity increased to $488 million, up $125 million quarter-over-quarter, and our cash balance stood at $151 million. The significant increase in liquidity and cash metrics reflects receipt of the proceeds from refinancing our senior notes, which was finalized in July. We recently used the proceeds to pay off the remainder of the Icelandic castthouse facility as intended. Net debt was $475 million, a slight increase from prior quarter due to a normal working capital build I will discuss later.

As Jesse mentioned, we were pleased to receive our fiscal year 2024 45X payment of approximately $75 million from the IRS in October, which will help to significantly lower our net debt amount in Q4. Despite some lower-than-anticipated production output this quarter, our core financial performance remains strong and demonstrates the underlying strength of our business.

Now let's turn to Page 8, and I'll provide a breakdown of adjusted EBITDA results from Q2 to Q3. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter increased $27 million to $101 million. Realized LME of $2,508 per ton was down $32 versus prior quarter, while realized U.S. Midwest premium of $1,425 per ton was up $575. The benefit from higher Midwest premium was slightly offset by lower realized European duty paid premium down $26 per ton to $193. Taken together, LME and regional premium pricing contributed an incremental $48 million compared with the prior quarter.

Energy costs were higher, driven by a warmer-than-average end of summer in the U.S. and higher LME prices impacting our Icelandic power contracts that are linked to the spot metal price. Energy prices have returned to more normalized levels in October, but the Q3 headwind reduced adjusted EBITDA by $9 million. Alumina and our other key raw materials were approximately flat in the quarter, in line with our previously provided outlook.

Continued pressure on the U.S. dollar compared to the Icelandic krona resulted in a quarter-over-quarter headwind that was offset by lower operating costs. However, our operating costs were slightly elevated compared to expectations as additional maintenance costs were required following the brief potline instability at Mt. Holly that Jesse mentioned earlier. Mt. Holly is back to full and stable production, but this event resulted in lower Q3 production, translating into approximately a $10 million headwind compared to our expectations.

Now let's turn to Slide 9 for a look at cash flow. We began the quarter with $41 million in cash. In July, we successfully completed the refinancing of our $250 million senior secured 7.5% notes with new $400 million senior secured notes at an improved coupon. As we explained at the last call, the proceeds from this transaction were used to pay down the outstanding debt on the new Icelandic casthouse. This debt repayment occurred early in Q4 and will be reflected in our Q4 financials next call.

Our priority to lower debt and achieve the $300 million net debt target remains unchanged. We funded $16 million of CapEx in the quarter that went towards ongoing investments at Jamalco as well as sustaining CapEx at the smelters. We paid $12 million in interest during the quarter that will decrease going forward as the recent refinancing transaction was completed at an improved coupon of 6.875%.

We also paid down various credit facilities to end the period with minimal borrowings on our revolvers. We continue to accrue 45X tax credits in Q3. As of September 30, we had a receivable of $220 million related to full year 2023, 2024 and 2025 year-to-date U.S. production. As I noted earlier, in October, we were pleased to receive $75 million from the IRS from our Section 45X filing for fiscal year 2024. We continue to expect to receive the fiscal year 2023 credit in the coming months.

Finally, we had a working capital build this quarter as timing of alumina shipments increased inventory levels and the higher price environment for LME and Midwest premium increased accounts receivable balances. We expect to improve our working capital as we approach year-end. We ended Q3 with $151 million in cash and strong liquidity in place to support our Mt. Holly expansion. The Restart project is on schedule and progressing well. We will begin to call out the cash outlays in future quarters as capital and operating expense dollars from the Mt. Holly project become more material.

Now let's turn to Page 10 and look ahead to the next 90 days. At current realized prices, we expect Q4 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $170 million to $180 million. For Q4, the lagged LME of $2,705 per ton is expected to be up about $197 versus Q3 realized prices. The Q4 lagged U.S. Midwest premium of $1,775 per ton is up $350 versus Q3. The realized European duty paid premium is expected to be $275 per ton in Q4 or up about $82. Taken together, the lagged LME and delivery premium changes are expected to have an approximately $65 million increase to Q4 adjusted EBITDA when compared with Q3 levels.

We expect similar energy price levels in Q4 as U.S. energy costs are forecasted flat to previous quarter and are expected to have no impact on quarter-over-quarter adjusted EBITDA. Coke, pitch and caustic prices have modest increases, but are partially offset by carbon emission allowances, resulting in a potential headwind of $0 to $5 million quarter-over-quarter impact. We expect our Q4 operating expense costs to improve by $0 to $5 million.

Volume and mix should also improve by $10 million as Mt. Holly has returned to full pot complement following the brief instability in Q3. At Grundartangi, the Line 2 outage is expected to negatively impact shipments by 37,000 tons and EBITDA by $30 million in the fourth quarter. As Jesse said, we expect the financial impact of the Line 2 outage to be covered by our insurance policies. Of course, the insurance proceeds could lag the actual loss by a couple of quarters. We will normalize the timing of the insurance payments by adjusting EBITDA in the period where the financial impact occurred and adjusting out the receipt of the insurance proceeds in future quarters.

We'll continue to call out the adjustments as exceptional items in the coming quarters, and we have already included this adjustment in our Q4 adjusted EBITDA outlook. We also include the estimated hedge and tax impacts to help model our business. We expect a $10 million to $15 million headwind from realized hedge settlements and $5 million tax expense, both flowing through our Q4 P&L and impacting adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share. As a reminder, our appendix details the full hedge book and continues to show the vast majority of LME and regional premium volumes are exposed to market prices.

Now I'll hand the call back to Jesse.

Thanks, Pete. As we begin to look forward to 2026, the business is well positioned to generate significant cash flows over the balance of this year and throughout 2026. For instance, if you were to take our Q4 outlook and just update for spot metal prices, our expected adjusted EBITDA generation would increase by approximately $45 million to $220 million. The incremental Mt. Holly restart tonnes should further increase profitability starting in Q2 2026.

In addition to strong EBITDA generation, we had $220 million in Section 45X receivables at the end of Q3, and we received our 2024 45X refund amount of $75 million in October. At these levels of EBITDA generation and the anticipated receipt of cash against our 45X receivables over the coming months, we are well positioned to reach our net debt target of $300 million early in 2026. We are already well above our liquidity targets.

Per our capital allocation framework included in the appendix, once we meet our capital allocation targets, we will continue to first allocate capital to our sustaining capital projects and identified organic growth projects. A good example here is our Mt. Holly expansion project that should be complete by the end of Q2 2026.

In line with our standard practice, we will provide updated guidance on sustaining and investment capital spending for 2026 on our February call. As we have cash flows beyond our capital needs, we will continue to be opportunistic but disciplined with M&A opportunities like our acquisition of Jamalco in 2023 and otherwise look to begin to return excess cash to our shareholders.

As we approach our net debt target, we thought it would be useful to provide some further guidance on the types of capital returns that we would anticipate once we have met our targets. While we are not announcing any actions today, we have started to assess our options, including listening to shareholder feedback that we receive from time to time. This feedback has been overwhelmingly in favor of the share buyback program as a means of returning capital to shareholders. We expect to come back to you all with further details and announcements as we move into 2026, including the amount and timing of any potential share repurchase programs.

Thanks to everyone for joining us today, and we look forward to taking your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Nick Giles of B. Riley Securities.

This is Fedor Shabalin Selin on Nick Giles. And thanks for detailed report. I wanted to start with Mt. Holly. So if we were to isolate the Mt. Holly restart, which is roughly 50,000-plus tonnes, is it kind of safe to assume that this could generate in excess of $60 million in EBITDA at spot prices? And on the CapEx side, how much of CapEx has been already spent to date? And when would we expect you to achieve full run rate? You mentioned it starting Q2 and finish restart by June, if I correct, 2026, does it assume 100% utilization at this time?

Sure. Thanks for joining the call. This is Jesse. Yes. So we're, as I said, well on track with the Mt. Holly restart, and we started the initial hiring and started some of the initial capital spending. But CapEx spending to date has been relatively minimal. You'll see more of that come in, in Q1 and Q2. In total, as we said before, the total project should be somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million project spend. In terms of the additional EBITDA that we generated from the project, so you'll start to have units coming on in Q2 and then should be at full run rate starting in Q3. Once it reaches full run rate at spot prices today, the additional volume should generate about $25 million in additional EBITDA per quarter.

This is helpful. And it would be great to get some additional perspective on how you're thinking about capital allocation. You already mentioned this. So your liquidity and net debt are roughly even amounts above your stated targets. So you're kind of indirectly at your target in some sense. And at what point will we consider high capital returns? And would you prefer buybacks or dividends? And then on the M&A side, would downstream opportunities be on the table?

Sure. So yes, as I mentioned, we have been -- given the significant cash flow that we have today and that we see generating going forward, especially when you consider the lagged payments of those 45X payments that are on our books, and just to note again, we did receive the first tranche of those 45X payments from 2024 fiscal year of $75 million in October. So you'll see that come through in our Q4 results.

We do think that we will be in a position to reach those net debt targets in 2026. Once we do, we've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and we spent a lot of time talking with our shareholders, and there is a clear stated preference for buybacks. And so as we think about it today, that's the most likely form of capital return once we do reach those targets.

Our next question comes from the line of Katja Jancic of BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe starting on Iceland. Did you say the repairs will take 11 to 12 months, but there is potential for you to accelerate the restart of the potline?

That's right, Katja. So we're proceeding on 2 paths. The first path is the full replacement of those transformers. And there, we'll have to wait for the new transformers to be manufactured and then shipped to Iceland and then installed and then restart, and that's in that 11- to 12-month time line that I gave.

At the same time, we're investigating whether the damaged transformers can be repaired. And we're hopeful that, that will be the case, but we have additional work to do to prove that out. If we are able to follow repair path, we would still order the new transformers, but the repair transformers would allow us to bring production back online several months in advance of that 11- to 12-month time line for replacement.

Okay. And then on the insurance side, so would insurance cover for if the potline stays down for 11, 12 months, will insurance cover fully those 11 to 12 months? Or are there any restrictions?

Yes. Our expectations today is that our policy limits are high enough that they will cover both the property and business interruption costs of the outage up to and including that 11- to 12-month time line that I gave. Of course, we have deductibles, the deductibles on the policy of $15 million. But above that, we will -- we expect to fully recover the losses.

Okay. Maybe shifting to Hawesville. When do you think given the extension of the review process, are you think -- is there any time line when you think we could get a final decision?

No time line. As I said, we've had a really good process from the beginning. But over the course of Q3, we did have a new surge of interest. And so we decided to then extend that time line to allow that new interest to come in and do some due diligence on the site. It's very positive interest, I'll say. And so we want to give them time, and we're working with them to proceed sort of as quickly as possible, but it's difficult to give an exact time line at this point.

And does the review still include a potential restart?

Yes. As we've always said, our goal here as part of the strategic review process is to see what the interest is in the site and what the potential value of the site is. And then we'll compare that versus the economics of a restart, and we'll make the best decision for our stakeholders.

Our next question comes from the line of John Tumazos from Independent Research.

Of course, it's always hard to predict costs and there's uncertainties in hedging. But given how good things are right now, can you lock in the $110 larger billet premium with contracts, so it's certain next year? Are you able to hedge the Midwest premium that was $0.87 the other day. There are futures. And would you increase your LME metal hedging?

Thanks, John. No change to our overall hedging policy. So as we've said all along, the main portion of our hedging program, and you can see the details on Slide 17 of the presentation, is to offset market power price risk that we have at Sebree. And so as you see from that slide, we've got about 22% of the megawatts for Sebree hedged for fiscal year 2026. And then we'll generally sell a little bit of metal, both Midwest premium and LME against those power price hedges to lock in some margin for Sebree. And the amounts that you see in the appendix are about normal for that program going forward.

Aside from this, we did enter into a little bit of Midwest premium hedging when we made the decision to do the Mt. Holly expansion project and to lock in those returns that we've laid out for you where we expect the cost of that project to be fully repaid by the end of 2026. But other than that, our expectation is to remain exposed to the metal price and to offer that exposure to our shareholders.

Now John, you did mention billet. In the U.S., we operate on an annual contract for our billet sales. And so most -- the vast majority of our billet sales in 2026 will be locked in at those prices that I quoted earlier for full year 2026. We do tend to leave a little bit of billet exposed to market prices throughout the year to pick up some spot exposure, but the vast majority of that will be locked in at those premiums that I gave earlier.

Jesse, the different news networks were suggesting yesterday that some of the Supreme Court justices might rule against Trump's tariffs. And of course, the 50% aluminum is very helpful to Century. And then 9 of the 23 presidential elections, off-year elections, the President's party has lost 40 to the House of Representative seats since 1934 is playing with political statistics noodling. So there's a chance that things don't stay this well from a regulatory standpoint. Do you think this is a good time to sell the company?

John, this one is pretty clear. The Supreme Court case relates to what are called the IEEPA tariffs or sometimes known as the Reciprocal tariffs only. They do not relate to the Section 232 tariffs, which are where the steel and aluminum tariffs are under. The Section 232 tariffs have already been upheld in court and will not be impacted by the Supreme Court case pending on the IEEPA tariffs.

So let's just say my thesis is wrong. Do you think this is a good time to sell the company anyway?

No, John, the company is not for sale. We are very excited about our prospects. We're excited about the cash flow generation that were available to show our shareholders. We're excited about our growth opportunities at Mt. Holly with the positive strategic review process, with the greenfield project as well as the increasing demand we're seeing across the United States. So our focus is really we're going to continue to try to produce aluminum as profitably as possible, supply units into the U.S. and European markets and continue to execute on our strategic plan.

We have a follow-up question from Nick Giles of B. Riley Securities.

This is Fedor again. My question is kind of a continuation of John's topic. So the [indiscernible] have been indicating very, very tight domestic inventories, which has supported stronger Midwest pricing. So -- and if prices continue to strengthen, do you think that could influence the administration's decision to keep 232 in place with no exclusions? And then on the other side, if we saw a Canadian exclusion, for instance, how do you think about Midwest premium? I know that Canada is not a marginal [indiscernible] into the U.S., but I have to imagine there would be some downside risk.

Fedor, I think it's important to step back and look at the purpose of the Section 232 tariffs, which was to increase U.S. domestic aluminum production to meet national security needs. And when we look at the program and the response of industry, it's really doing just that, and Century is proud to be doing its part.

So just to name a few of those projects that are coming online, the Mt. Holly restart project that we're implementing and will be up by mid next year will, by itself, increase U.S. production by 10% from levels today. So that's a significant increase.

And then we've announced our own greenfield project and one of our competitors has announced their own greenfield project and together, along with the Mt. Holly restart, that would triple U.S. aluminum production by 2030. So I think that the tariffs are working as intended. They're driving industry to reinvest in adding production here in the United States and adding American aluminum jobs here in the United States. So the program seems to be working. And I think the administration has been quite clear that they'll continue to do their part and keep the tariffs in place with no exemptions and no exceptions going forward.

And promise, if you allow me to squeeze the last one. It was great to see new power agreement with Santee Cooper for Mt. Holly, where you have cost of service-based rates. And I wanted to ask about Sebree, where you're exposed to Indy Hub. What is the appetite to book incremental hedges for '26 and '27, especially given the expectations for increased electricity demand from data centers in this region?

Yes, we also were very excited about the Mt. Holly contract. That's a very long extension for us, gives us very good line of sight into next decade and was one of the keys in enabling us to restart production there. So we're really excited about what's to come at Mt. Holly, very good smelter, very profitable in today's environment.

At Sebree, likewise, the plant is operating excellent. We continue to invest in that plant. And we've been operating now under this market-based power contract for over a decade. And we've become very comfortable with the way it works. And we think over time, it's been the most cost-effective power contract actually that we have in our entire system.

Now as I mentioned earlier, we do some risk mitigation with that, and we've generally been hedging those power prices about 20% to 30% of our exposure on an annual basis. And we think that's a pretty good percentage of the overall power risk for us to lay off and puts the smelter in a good place to continue to be profitable and operate well through the cycles. So we're comfortable with that hedging program at that level. Of course, we'll always be looking and opportunistic, but we expect to continue our hedging programs as we have in the past as we move forward.

There are currently no questions at this time. So I'll pass it back over to management for any closing or further remarks.

Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. At Century, we're really excited about the end to 2025 and what's to come in 2026, and we'll continue to execute to the best of our abilities. Thanks all. Look forward to talking to everyone in February.

Thank you. That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.