RUSAL says dam disaster may cut 500,000 T aluminium
Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009
点击:
* At least 500,000 tonnes, maybe more, under threat
* Two Siberian smelters running on energy reserves
* This is "only a temporary solution" - company director
MOSCOW, Aug 18 (Reuters) - United Company RUSAL could potentially lose at least 500,000 tonnes of aluminium production as a result of an accident at a large Siberian hydroelectric power station, a company director said on Tuesday.
The world's largest aluminium producer said it had held talks with government officials about the possibility of cutting output after the fatal accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station, although no decision has yet been taken.
"We are currently relying on reserve capacities of energy, although this is only a temporary solution to the problem," said Artyom Volynets, UC RUSAL's director of strategy and corporate development.
"We consider that no less than 500,000 tonnes of aluminium production -- or maybe even more -- could be under threat," Volynets said in comments relayed via UC RUSAL's press service.
Twelve people were killed and sixty-four are missing, presumed dead, when a turbine room was flooded on Monday at the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam, Russia's largest hydroelectric power station.
UC RUSAL operates two plants in the city of Sayanogorsk, about 50 km (30 miles) from the dam. Production is currently running as normal, as the plants have secured emergency power from the neighbouring regions of Krasnoyarsk and Kemerovo.
UC RUSAL, with debts of $16.8 billion, has already announced plans to cut aluminium production this year by 500,000 tonnes, or 11 percent, as part of a wide-ranging plan to slash costs.
UC RUSAL produced 1.98 million tonnes of primary aluminium in the first half of 2009, down 10 percent from the same period a year ago. It said savings totalled $620 million by the end of June, more than half of its full-year target of $1.1 billion.
But the company's core Siberian smelters have been less affected than its plants elsewhere in Russia and abroad.
UC RUSAL cut output in Siberia by only 4.5 percent in the first half of 2009, compared with 33 percent at its plants in the Ural mountains and in Ukraine, Nigeria and Sweden. It did not give a breakdown of production cuts by individual plant. (Reporting by Polina Devitt and Robin Paxton, Editing by Peter Blackburn)