Century Completes New Power Contract for Ravenswood Plant.

Business Editors

RAVENSWOOD, W.Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2002

Century Aluminum Company of West Virginia, Inc., a subsidiary of Century Aluminum Company (Nasdaq:CENX) has signed a new contract to purchase electric power for its Ravenswood, WV, primary aluminum plant from Ohio Power Company, a unit of American Electric Power. The new contract is effective August 1, 2003, when the current contract with Ohio Power expires.

The new contract provides for purchase of power at competitive rates under a GS-4 schedule approved by the Public Utility Commission of Ohio. The GS-4 schedule is due to expire on December 31, 2005.

Electrical power accounts for about 30 percent of the cost to operate primary aluminum plants in the U.S.

The new contract follows the signing on March 11 of a 36-month extension to the plant's labor agreement with Local 5668 of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). The extension expires May 31, 2006. The USWA represents the plant's 580 hourly-paid employees.

Announcing the new contract, Century Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Craig A. Davis said:

"These two agreements are positive steps that enable us to continue our efforts to improve the competitiveness of the Ravenswood plant. They also are inter-connected because our commitment to purchase the power was dependent on having a labor agreement in place through the term of the new power contract.

"These agreements are the latest in a series of actions Century has taken to build the company into a larger and lower-cost producer of primary aluminum. Over the past 14 months we have:

-- Completed the acquisition of our Hawesville, KY reduction plant, nearly doubling primary aluminum production capacity to more than 1 billion pounds a year, and lowering our average cash cost of production by $0.04 a pound;

-- Put in place new supply contracts covering about one-half of our requirements for alumina, the feedstock for producing primary aluminum. The contracts are significantly lower in cost than the previous fixed-price contracts at the long-term average for aluminum prices. Prices for all of our alumina purchases now are indexed to the London Metal Exchange price for aluminum. This provides cost protection when aluminum prices are weak.

-- Entered into forward sales of metal, including hedges, for 2002 and 2003 at prices well above current levels; and

-- Put in place plans to attain an annual savings rate of $10 million in cash operating costs by the end of 2002.

"The net effect of these actions is that our cash break-even point will be lower in 2002 than in 2001 and still lower in 2003, making Century more competitive in all economic scenarios."

Century owns 465,000 metric tons per year (mtpy) of primary aluminum capacity at three locations. It owns and operates the 168,000-mtpy reduction plant at Ravenswood, WV and owns 80 percent of and operates the 237,000-mtpy plant at Hawesville, KY. Glencore owns the remainder. Century also owns a 49.67-percent interest in the 215,000-mtpy reduction plant at Mt. Holly, SC. Alcoa, Inc. owns the remainder of this facility and is the operating partner. Century's corporate offices are in Monterey, CA.

Note: Century's press releases may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company cautions that such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.