Rusal Lowers Aluminum Output By 0.1% In Past 9 Months, Sales Down 5.6% - Company

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2020) Russian aluminum giant Rusal sold 2.89 million tonnes (metric tons) of aluminum in January-September of this year, which is a 5,6% decrease, while the output went down 0.1 percent in that period, the company said in a statement.

In the third quarter of 2020, aluminum sales went up 3.3% as compared to the previous quarter, reaching 1.008 million tonnes. The largest volume of sales was in Europe, whose share in total sales fell to 37% (down from 46% in the previous quarter). The share of Asia, on the contrary, increased to 32% from 27%, and that of Russia and the CIS - to 24% from 20%.

The average aluminum prices went down 9.2 percent, according to Rusal.

In January-September of 2020, Rusal lowered aluminum output by 0.1%, down to 2.805 million tonnes, as compared to the same period of the previous year.

In the third quarter of 2020, aluminum production increased by 1.3% from the previous quarter, reaching 939,000 tonnes.

In the first quarter of 2020 the world demand for aluminum fell by 6.4 percent, according to Rusal, down to 14.43 million tonnes, amid the pandemic. In China, the demand fell by 6.3 percent down to 7.83 million tonnes, while in the rest of the world it fell by 6.5 percent down to 6.6 million tonnes. Meanwhile, world aluminum supplies continued to rise in January-March increasing by 3.5 percent up to 16.12 million tonnes and leading to a surplus of 1.7 million tonnes.

The Russian aluminum giant increased aluminum production by 1.3 percent in the first quarter of 2020 (as compared to the same period last year), up to 940,000 tonnes, while the company's aluminum sales went up 2 percent.