UC Rusal to Maintain US Aluminum Trading Operation

Washington , 27Mar2008-- Russian aluminum giant UC Rusal has "no intention" of shutting its US aluminum trading office and hand over US trading operations to partner Glencore, said a source inside Rusal. Speculation about the state of the company's US trading began to surface following the recent departure of Mark Bodner from Rusal America. Bodner, formerly of Sual's trading arm ASM, was appointed sales director in September 2007, responsible for the sales and marketing strategy. However, John Manganaro remains to head up the aluminum trading operations, and Sergey Bubnov remains as president, replacing Bruce Markowitz last year. The Rusal source told Platts that Bodner's departure was previously planned as he was there to assist in Rusal's transition after last year's merger of Rusal, Sual and the alumina assets of Glencore. The source said that Rusal America's and Glencore's businesses were separate. "We see a value in having a Rusal presence in the US," he added. Rusal said in September 2007 that Bubnov would oversee the company's continued expansion in the North American market, reporting to Peter Finnimore UC Rusal's sales director for aluminum. Richard Kellner, chief operating officer of Rusal America, said in September that "North America continues to be a very important geography for UC Rusal, and we are committed to capitalizing on the growth opportunity and providing our customers in this market with a broad range of aluminium products -- including our growing portfolio of value-added products --to help them meet the demands of their businesses." In October 2007, Rusal officials said UC Rusal expected to keep a relatively balanced trading approach between its three major market regions -- Europe, Asia and North America -- as it solidifies its marketing and sales strategy from its new marketing hub in Zug, Switzerland. In 2007, Rusal split its supply distribution approximately 38% to Europe, 23% to CIS, 23% to Asia and 16% to North America, according to a presentation given in September by Vladimir Kremer, UC Rusal sales and marketing director. Some US market sources have expressed concern that Rusal may reduce the amount of metal allocated to the US market going forward, but Finnimore said in October last year, "We stay loyal to the markets, continuing to service them in good times and bad." Rusal has built customer relationships in each market, and "we're committed to them," he said. At that time Finnimore said, "The American market is not so strong, so we'll react accordingly, but we've built customer relationships and we're committed to them." The merger and subsequent creation of the world's largest aluminum and alumina producer, UC Rusal, went through in March 2007. The shareholders of the enlarged group are Rusal owning 66%, Sual with 22% and Glencore 12%.