Tuesday 21 April 2020

Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA has aluminum brands with a smaller CO2 footprint


Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies in the world. Amazingly, it has operations in about 50 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state owns 34.3% of the company through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. Another 6.5% is owned by Folketrygdfond, which administers the Government Pension Fund of Norway. The company has about 35,000 employees. The company stock is Norsk Hydro ASA (OTC:NHYDY).

Consider Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA as an interesting stock investment. Think about the daily volume of the number of shares that are traded during the trading day. High volume is an indication that a stock is actively traded. Low volume is an indication that a stock is less actively traded. Some stocks always have high volume - these are popular among day traders and investors. Other stocks always have low volume - these are not interesting to short-term traders. (OTC:NHYDY) average trading capacity is at 176.222k shares and relative volume is now at 3.24 ×.

Smart investors study the details of their investments: daily changes, stock price movement for a certain time frame, stock volatility, performance indicators, technical analysis and analyst ratings. Norsk Hydro ASA (OTC:NHYDY) has interesting stock price movement in past 50 Days period and 52-Week period. The stock has a 12-month low at $2 -8.25% and a 12-month high of $5 +125.73%.

Look at past performance of a stock to try to predict the stock's future. Norsk Hydro ASA stock showed -0.0762% return for the recent month and disclosed -0.4402% return in 3-month period. The stock had -0.6234% return over 5 years. There was -0.5318% return in the yearly time period. That was the the fund’s track record, but the future performance could be different.

The definitions of stock volatility are interesting. The stock unfolded Volatility or average true range percent (ATRP 14) at 0.0777%. Volatility is a rate at which the price of a security increases or decreases for a given set of returns. Average true range percent (ATRP) measures volatility on a relative level. This is opposed to the ATR, which measures volatility on an absolute level. ATRP allows securities to be compared whereas ATR does not. That means lower-priced stocks won’t necessarily have lower ATR values than higher priced stocks.

The Beta factor is now at 0.83. What is it? BETA indicates whether a certain stock is more or less volatile than the market as a whole. If a stock has a beta score higher than 1, it means that volatility is high. Less than 1 means that volatility is low.

Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA is an aluminum producer with many competitors, such as: Alcoa (NYSE:AA), Britain's Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO), Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (CHALCO), UC Rusal, China Hongqiao Group Limited, China Power Investment Corporation, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), Shandong Xinfa Aluminum and East Hope Group.

Aluminum producers could charge more for aluminum produced with a smaller CO2 footprint. For example, Russian aluminum giant Rusal sells an "Allow" brand of low-carbon-certified aluminum. The prices would be $20 to $50 more per ton than for ordinary aluminum in global markets. Rio Tinto sells a "RenewAl" aluminum brand.

Norsk Hydro actually has 2 green aluminum brands: "Hydro 75R," which contains at least 75% recycled aluminum, and "Hydro 4.0," which, like Rio Tinto's offering, has less than four tons CO2 emitted per ton of aluminum produced.

The history of Norsk Hydro ASA is interesting. The company was founded on December 2, 1905 as Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab (lit. Norwegian hydro-electric nitrogen limited) by Sam Eyde, creating an opportunity for using a novel technology for producing artificial fertilizers by fixing nitrogen from air. The technology was developed by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland. The method is still known as the Birkeland-Eyde process. For this process, a power plant was built at the Svelgfossen waterfall near Notodden.

Hydro's 1st factory was built at Notodden (opened in 1907). Another was at Rjukan, Tinn (opened in 1911). In 1927 the company formed a partnership with the German company IG Farben in order to gain access to new better process. By 1945, IG Farben had become a majority shareholder in Norsk Hydro.

Today, these are the top shareholders of Norsk Hydro ASA:

34.30% - Government of Norway
05.09% - Folketrygdfondet
04.79% - Capital Research & Management Co. (World Investors)
02.90% - Schroder Investment Management Ltd.
02.37% - DNB Asset Management AS
02.04% - Baillie Gifford & Co.
01.97% - The Vanguard Group, Inc.
01.60% - Capital Research & Management Co. (Global Investors)
01.35% - J.O. Hambro Capital Management Ltd.
01.35% - Storebrand Asset Management AS

1 comment:

  1. When aluminum was discovered is interesting. Aluminum was first isolated in 1825 by Hans Christian Ørsted (Oersted) in Copenhagen, Denmark who reported, "a lump of metal which in color and luster somewhat resembles tin." Ørsted certainly produced aluminum by reducing aluminum chloride using a potassium-mercury amalgam. An amalgam is a mixture or blend.

    Physically, chemically and mechanically, aluminum is a metal similar to steel, brass, copper, zinc, lead or titanium. It can be melted, cast, formed and machined in a similar way to these metals. It also conducts electric currents. In fact, often the same equipment and fabrication methods are used as for steel.

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