Tajikistan cuts aluminum production nearly 10.5% in 10 months
DUSHANBE. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Talco, Tajikistan's only aluminum smelter and Central Asia's biggest, reduced primary aluminum production 10.5% year-on-year in January-October to 298,052 tonnes, the company told Interfax.
However this was 1.1% above target for the period, the company said.
Talco said at the start of February that it was idling a tenth of its capacity after cutting power consumption by a third in connection with an acute energy crisis in Tajikistan and with the drop in global demand and prices for aluminum.
Tajikistan's aluminum exports plummeted 49.9% year-on-year in the ten months to $472.8 million, the State Statistics Committee said. Alumina imports fell 24.6% to $233.1 million.
Talco cut aluminum production 4.7% in 2008 to 399,450 tonnes.
Talco is a strategic company that accounted for 73.9% of Tajikistan's exports in 2008.
The state-owned Talco, built in 1975, is capable of producing 517,000 tonnes of aluminum per year.