Rusal announces further cuts

Perhaps putting aside his ceremonial title of Aluminium Ambassador, Rusal’s Oleg Deripaska has announced further production cuts for 2014.

According to the company’s press release, Rusal has cut aluminium production by 324,733 tonnes, or by 8 percent of 2012 production. The company had previously said it would cut output by 357,000 tonnes this year.

The company plans to cut 2014 aluminium production by 647,504 tonnes, which is a 15% cut based on 2012. So far, aluminium production had been mothballed at the Volgograd, Urals and Volkhov aluminium smelters, as well as at the first phase of the Novokuznetsk smelter and at the Alscon smelter in Nigeria. Aluminium production has been mothballed at some potrooms of the Bogoslovsk smelter and of the Nadvoitsy smelter as well.

Output cuts at the above-mentioned facilities will amount to 247,000 tonnes in 2013 and will result in an output decrease of 516,000 tonnes in 2014, Rusal said. Production volume at the Sayanogorsk, Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk and Khakass aluminium smelters has also decreased. Output reduction at these smelters will amount to 77,724 tonnes in 2013 and an expected 131,442 tonnes in 2014, the company added. In early October it also postponed the start of production of its Boguchansk aluminium project until June 2014.