Rusal to cut 6% annual aluminium production due to alumina price surge and decreased domestic demand

Rusal explicitly said it would reduce its production by 250,000 tonnes annually due to the global alumina price rally buoyed by output suspensions in Australia, the world’s second-largest alumina producer, upon bauxite supply disruptions from Guinea and Brazil, without specifying the timeline when the production cuts would begin and also not naming the smelter that would witness the reduction. The company operates 11 smelters, including one in Sweden.

However, the Russian aluminium giant assured that its production cut would create no job losses. This move is only to mitigate high production costs as alumina prices have doubled over the past months to more than $700 per tonne, whereas aluminium usage in the end-user products has increased by 11 per cent this year.