Rusal to convert all its smelting power plants to hydroelectricity by 2020

Oleg Mukhamedshin, deputy chief executive of Rusal has said to media that Rusal, the world’s second-largest aluminium producer, will stick to its target of converting all of its electricity sources to clean energy or hydropower by 2020. It is noteworthy that President Donald Trump early this month announced the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change mitigation.  This was a part of Trump’s “America First” policy, but the country remained open to negotiate for “a better deal.”

The Russian firm is also considering more investment in the R&D of new light weight alloys to withstand China’s excess supply of low-end primary aluminium product which continues to put downward pressure on prices and affects profitability of global aluminium producers.

Commenting on their clean energy targets, Oleg Mukhamedshin, said in his recent interview: “China, the European Union and Russia have signalled their strong intention to stay the course on their commitment.”

Hong Kong and Moscow-listed Rusal enjoys the benefit of abundant and cheap hydro power in Russia. Currently, 90 per cent of its smelting plants are powered by hydroelectricity and the remaining 10 per cent are run by power stations fuelled by either nuclear or natural gas. The farm has a plan to convert 100% of its plants to hydroelectricity by 2020.

China’s aluminium smelters, which produce half the world’s output of the metal, get 90 per cent of their energy from carbon emission-heavy coal-fired power plants. Coal power is expected to become more costly when Beijing would be rolling out carbon emission quota trading in the next few years.

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Aluminium is one of the most energy-intensive industries, with electricity cost typically accounting for a third of the production costs. The US was the world’s second largest carbon dioxide emitter after China last year being the seventh largest aluminium producer globally. China is by far the largest producer of the aluminium and Russia, the second largest aluminium producer, produces only one-eighth of China’s output. Converting energy sources to cleaner energy would remain a key focus for the aluminium producers in coming times in order to adhere to sustainable aluminium production process and justify aluminium’s claim to be the green metal.