Rusal sees CIS aluminum consumption rising 4% in 2013
MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - Russian Aluminum (Rusal) predicts an increase in the consumption of aluminum in the Commonwealth of Independent States this year of 4%, the company's director for sales in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States Sergei Belsky said.
Rusal reckons that aluminum consumption in Russia last year was up 4% at around 900,000 tonnes. Rusal sales in Russia and other CIS countries amounted to roughly 800,000 tonnes.
"As for our forecasts for 2013, we predict growth in the consumption of aluminum in Russia and the CIS of another 4%. By that same amount, we predict, will our sales in this new year increase," Belsky said on the sidelines of the all-Russia virtual conference organized by the journal Metallosnabzhenie and Sbyt (Metal Supply and Sales).
Rusal anticipates that the need for aluminum in Russia will more than double over the coming seven years from the 900,000 tonnes expected for 2012. The company thinks the main driver of demand for aluminum will be the development of the country's automotive industry, which over the next seven or eight years will grow as much as 8%.
The markets of Russia and the CIS are Rusal's most lucrative, as around 75% of sales there are of product with added value. Rusal has more than 600 customers in Russia and elsewhere in the CIS.
Rusal sold a little less than 800,000 tonnes of product in Russia in 2011.
