On Tuesday, April 27, Rusal announced that its aluminium production in the first quarter of 2021 stood at 932,000 tonnes, with Siberian smelters representing 93 per cent of the total aluminium output. The production in Q1 reflected a quarter-on-quarter drop of 1.9 per cent from 950,000 tonnes and 0.8 per cent year-on-year from 940,000 tonnes.
Krasnoyarsk aluminium smelter in Siberia produced 253,000 tonnes of aluminium in Q1, followed by Bratsk aluminium smelter churning out 250,000 tonnes. Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter and Irkutsk aluminium smelter produced 132,000 tonnes and 105,000 tonnes of aluminium, respectively, in the said.
Aluminium sales amounted to 962,000 tonnes, down 6.4 per cent from 1.028 million tonnes in Q4 2020 and 5.3 per cent from 914,000 tonnes in Q1 2020. Normalization of inventories affected sales in January 2021 and led to the quarter-on-quarter decrease, including marketing of aluminium from BoAZ and other third parties.
Rusal’s aluminium value-added products (VAP) sales totalled 468,000 tonnes, down 3.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter from 483,000 tonnes but up year-on-year by 10.9 per cent from 422,000 tonnes.
Europe continued to be the main consumer of aluminium from Rusal, accounting for 42 per cent of Rusal’s total sales. Russia & CIS consumed 24 per cent, Asia 26 per cent, and America 8 per cent in Q1 2021.
Rusal outlined that the aluminium market in the first quarter of 2021 continued its strong rebound from the periods in 2020 affected by the COVID19 outbreak. Both LME price and premiums soared on strong demand recovery and expectation of supply disruptions in the short and medium-term. At the end of Q1 2021, LME price approached US$ 2,300 per tonne level, up from US$ 1,500 per tonne for the same period last year.
According to Rusal, global primary aluminium demand climbed 11 per cent year-on-year to 16.4 million tonnes. Among aluminium end-user industries, demand from the transport industry recorded the highest. The worldwide supply of primary aluminium also saw an increase of 5.9 per cent year-on-year to 16.75 million tonnes during the first quarter of 2021.
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