Rusal to decide on aluminium plant suspensions in mid-December

Russian aluminium giant Rusal plans to decide in mid-December which aluminium smelters to suspend as a part of its plans to potentially cut up to 200,000 tonnes of production, Chief Executive Vladislav Soloviev told reporters on Tuesday.

Rusal, the world's top aluminium producer, is looking to cut production, under pressure from sliding prices due to a market surplus.

"We have not decided yet. We are now looking at KUBAL," Soloviev said. KUBAL, the sole producer of primary aluminium and the largest industrial facility in Sweden, has annual production capacity of 128,000 tonnes of aluminium.

"We will take a decision along with the business plan in December," Soloviev said.

He added that apart from KUBAL, Rusal was looking at the Kandalaksha smelter in North-Western Russia with annual capacity of 76,000 tonnes of aluminium production and the Novokuznetsk smelter in Siberia with another 195,000 tonnes, as potential plants for suspending.

Three-month LME aluminium prices were at $1,467.5 per tonne on Tuesday, down from $2,029 a year ago.

Rusal has trimmed its forecast for global aluminium demand growth in 2015 to 5.6 percent and raised its forecast for a global aluminium surplus this year by a third to 373,000 tonnes.

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