Rusal invests US$ 24 million in calcined coke plant at Irkutsk Aluminium Smelter

UC RUSAL has announced the investment of USD 23.7 million to launch a new calciner at the Irkutsk Aluminium Smelter.

Decision was taken in 2015 to upgrade calciner #2 at IrkAZ in order to supply calcined coke to the Sayanogorsk Aluminium Smelter to make pre-baked anodes. Production capacity of the calciner was 72 ktpa.

RUSAL has calcination capacity in IrkAZ as well as the Bratsk and Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelters. BrAZ and KrAZ produced about 800 kt of calcined coke in 2016 fulfilling about 61% of the total demand of RUSAL's aluminium smelters. After the launch of calciner #2 at IrkAZ, 71% of the Rusal’s calcinatory demand will be meted out in-house.

“By increasing our in-house capacity for calcined coke production, RUSAL will be able to gradually abandon the supplies from third parties and cut costs by USD 8 million a year. The company is planning to further increase its petroleum coke production, thus allowing RUSAL to completely abandon its imported supplies in two to three years,” said Evgeny Nikitin, Head of Aluminium Business.

Currently Russia is running short of calcination capacity at present forcing consumers to purchase calcined coke from China at high prices.