Tajikistan reduces aluminium output capacity

DUSHANBE, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Tajik state aluminium company TALCO has cut its electricity consumption by a third and shut down 10 percent of its production lines due to energy shortages in the impoverished nation, it said on Tuesday. TALCO, Central Asia's biggest primary aluminium producer, had earlier said it would cut aluminium output by 4.9 percent to 380,000 tonnes due to falling global prices. Sayokhat Kadyrova, a TALCO spokeswoman, said the company had cut daily electricity consumption to 15 kilowatt-hours a day from 21 kilowatt-hours and reduced the working day by one hour. She did not say how much production was now likely to fall. Tajikistan, which imports electricity from Turkmenistan, introduced power rationing last month after it said neighbouring Uzbekistan had cut off power transit to the impoverished nation. TALCO provides about 75 percent of the country's hard currency revenues. (Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov) Source: Reuters