Hydro's underlying results increased significantly in 2010, driven by a market recovery which lifted prices and strengthened demand combined with reduced costs and manning throughout our operations. Underlying EBIT increased to NOK 3,351 million, compared with an underlying loss amounting to NOK 2,555 million in 2009. Overall sales volumes increased by 17 percent, compared with a decline of 18 percent in the previous year, partly reflecting customer restocking activities. Although the overall market surplus narrowed, market inventories remained at high levels.
Underlying results improved for our upstream business, mainly due to higher realized aluminium prices and an improved performance from our existing alumina and raw materials business. Qatalum incurred substantial losses in 2010 due to the ongoing ramp-up of the plant and delays caused by a power outage that stopped production requiring a restart of the cells that were in production. Insurance proceeds are expected to cover a majority of the loss relating to the outage. Ramp-up continued but is being hampered by delayed commissioning of the power plant's steam turbines.
Our metal markets and downstream business delivered substantially higher underlying results as sales approached pre-crisis levels. Continued focus on cost-reduction measures and firm operating margins leveraged the positive effects of the market developments. Our rolled products business achieved record results for the year with underlying EBIT in excess of NOK 900 per metric ton, substantially higher than all of the previous four years.
Our energy business contributed to the improved underlying EBIT with solid operating results.
