Rusal started the conservation of production at a number of plants

UC Rusal may begin to reduce production of aluminum in September, which will affect the work of Siberian plants.
10.09.2018
RBC
Origin source
Aluminum company UC Rusal billionaire Oleg Deripaska is preparing to reduce production. American sanctions do not allow UC Rusal to participate in the annual negotiations on contracts. This is reported by Bloomberg with reference to three sources familiar with the situation.

UC Rusal may start cutting production, including at Siberian enterprises as early as this month, the agency quotes sources. The final decision has not yet been made, notes Bloomberg.

A source close to UC Rusal confirmed to RBC that the company could start cutting production in September. The representative of the company declined to comment.

UC Rusal is the largest aluminum supplier outside of China. "Reducing the supply of metals can lead to another crisis in the industry, since UC Rusal's trading operations are key to the global supply chain," Bloomberg writes.

The company hoped that the sanctions imposed in April will be lifted by autumn, after the shareholder of the company holding En + proposed reducing the influence of Deripaska on UC Rusal. According to the Financial Times, En + sent a plan to the US Treasury that says that Deripaska agreed to reduce its stake in En + to 45% from the current 66%. Through a package in En + Deripaska controls 48.13% of UC Rusal.

As RBC previously wrote, the term of UC Rusal's contracts for the supply of aluminum to foreign customers ends on October 1. If sanctions are not lifted, all products destined for foreign consumers will go to the warehouse, said a source of RBC familiar with the terms of the contracts.
The contract with UC Rusal usually takes place in September-November, Fitch analysts reported earlier. New contracts in the industry are traditionally discussed at the margins of the Metal Bulletin conference, which takes place in Berlin this week, writes Bloomberg.

The weakening of sanctions by the US, even made at the last moment, will still allow UC Rusal to avoid a reduction in production. The head of the US Treasury, Stephen Mnuchin, said earlier that exclusion from the market is not the goal of sanctions against the Russian company.

In August, one of the enterprises of UC Rusal, which specialized in the supply of aluminum in the US, Nadvoitsky aluminum plant - stopped work because of the loss of customers. As Kommersant wrote, UC Rusal itself estimated that due to sanctions, aluminum output could be reduced by 30% from the business plan in 2018 and by 50-70% under the worst scenario.

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