China to Be Net Aluminum Importer by 2009 — Rusal

China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of aluminum, may become a net importer of the metal from 2009, Peter Finnimore, sales director of United Co. Rusal, said in Shanghai Monday. The country will probably account for 36 percent of global consumption of the metal used in beverage cans and aircraft by 2010, up from 25 percent currently, he told a conference. Rusal, owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, is the world’s biggest aluminum producing company. Increased demand will lift prices of aluminum, which have lagged behind other base metals in London in the past five years, rising less than half as much as copper and nickel. A reversal in China’s aluminum market may follow a similar path to oil, where the nation’s imports have more than doubled since 2001, contributing to a fourfold gain in prices. China is the key driver of global aluminum demand which will grow by 3.6 percent annually, according to the Moscow-based company. Rusal expects the metal to reach a record $4,000 a metric ton as early as next year, Alexander Bulygin, chief executive officer, said in March. Rusal plans to buy a cathode factory in China’s Shanxi province by the end of the year, Grigory Goryachikh, general manager of Shanxi Rusal Cathode Co., said in an interview at the conference today. Cathode is used in aluminum production.