The consumption of aluminium in Russia may decline by at least 30% this year, compared with 2019, that will be mainly due to COVID-19 and associated with this economic recession in the country, according to recent statements, made by local aluminium producers and industry analysts.
Text: Eugene Gerden
A significant drop of consumption will be primarily due to the major reduction of demand from some major aluminium-consuming industries in Russia, representatives of some of which have recently announced their plans to reduce their production volumes by 50–80% this year, compared to 2019.
At the same time, in the case of Russia, and its major local producer Rusal much will depend on the further situation in global markets, as about 75% of aluminium, which is produced in Russia, is sent for exports.
The current economic crisis both in Russia and global scale and associated with slow recovery in demand, according to some analysts, may force Russian producers to consider significant cuts of their production capacities, with the biggest are expected to be observed for Rusal.