Annual reporting 2011: Short-term challenges - long-term opportunities

"While financially speaking, aluminium has been challenging over the past decade, it may not be because of a lack of confidence, but paradoxically because of an over-confidence in aluminium. An exaggerated optimism has led to over-investment and surplus capacity, weighing down prices and profitability, amplified by weaker demand due to the financial and economic unrest that started in 2008," President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg writes in his letter to shareholders.

"We are focusing our efforts on what we ourselves can do to improve, further reinforcing our repositioning measures and performance improvement programs, firmly controlling costs and margins. Despite the current economic turbulence, I have never been more certain that we are future proof," Brandtzæg says.

The report meeting the Norwegian statutory requirements for annual reporting is "Financial Statements and Board of Directors' Report - 2011." This report is available in Norwegian and English.

In addition, a more extensive report is made available, "Annual Report - 2011", with detailed information about Hydro's businesses, operational performance, financial performance, viability performance, corporate governance and financial statements. The report is available in English.

At www.hydro.com/reporting2011 the full content of the two reports is presented with supplementary information. All parts of the reports can be downloaded from this web site and printed in PDF format on demand.

Hydro's main reporting on viability performance is included in the "Annual Report - 2011," with additional details on www.hydro.com/reporting2011

Shareholders and stakeholders may request a printed copy of any of Hydro's 2011 reports at www.hydro.com/reporting2011 free of charge.