UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminum and alumina producer, announces the main results achieved in the first half as part of the program "Being the first" aimed at overcoming the effects of the global economic downturn and increasing the competitiveness of business.
The economic impact of measures implemented to reduce costs in the first half amounted to more than 620 million dollars. It is planned that the total cost reduction for 2009 will be about $ 1.1 billion.
The average cost of aluminum production in July was reduced by 27% compared with December 2008. Energy costs were reduced by more than 20%. Raw material costs reduced by 41%.
In the first half of bauxite decreased by 35.5% over the same period of 2008 and amounted to 5.8 million tons.It is planned that in 2009 the decline in bauxite mining will be 5.6 million tons.
Alumina output cut by 34% over the same period last year and reached 3.7 million tons. By the end of the year alumina production will be cut by 3.9 million tons.
Aluminium production in the first half was reduced by 10% over the same period last year and amounted to 1.98 million tons. The decrease in aluminum production in 2009 will be 0.5 million tons.
"The results showed half of what we have developed and implement effective affirmative action program aimed at reducing production costs as a major competitive advantage. Until the end, we intend to further reduce the cost by 7-8%, which will provide a good margin of safety Rusal and make you feel confident in any situation on the market.
In the near future, we intend to sign an agreement with our lenders on long-term debt restructuring and to focus their efforts on the development of flexible production that can instantly respond to the changing needs of our customers.
This will give the opportunity to realize our benefits at start of new alloys that enable customers to significantly reduce costs due to production of the metal produced by us taking into account the characteristics of their products, "- said Oleg Deripaska, CEO of RUSAL.
