Canadian Business reported that a hit to electricity contracts with aluminum smelters reduced Hydro Quebec's profits in the Q3.
Excluding a charge related to the planned closure of the Gentilly-2 nuclear reactor the public utility's profits fell 6.9 per cent to USD 376 million for the period ended September 30th 2012. That's down from USD 404 million a year ago. Including the charge, Hydro Quebec lost USD 1.46 billion.
Hydro Quebec lost USD 61 million more than a year ago from its contracts with aluminum producers. The causes were aluminum prices which slowed production, the high Canadian dollar and the purchase from Rio Tinto Alcan of USD 45 million of electricity. Hydro was forced to make the purchases because of the lockout of employees at Rio Tinto's Alma plant, which ended last summer. This shortfall was largely offset by an increase of USD 51 million in revenue from net electricity exports.
Quarterly expenditures rose 2.3% while revenues grew just 0.3% to USD 2.62 billion. Hydro Quebec also released Monday its second-quarter results which were never made public for an unknown reason. The net profit in the quarter fell 13.4% to USD 402 million from USD 464 million in the prior year. Revenues for the second quarter totalled USD 2.65 billion down 4%.
