RUSAL to cut aluminium output

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's United Company RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer, plans to cut output by 4 percent, or around 180,000 tonnes, Interfax news agency quoted Chief Executive Alexander Bulygin as saying on Monday.



He did not specify when the cuts would take place.



Bulygin also said the launch of a major new aluminium smelter in Siberia, Taishet, with a nameplate capacity of 750,000 tonnes per year, would be delayed by a year from 2009 due to the financial crisis.



UC RUSAL said last week it planned to close several potlines at its Bogoslovsk and Urals smelters, accounting for about 2 percent of the company's output, without specifying when the cuts will take place.



Bulygin also told Interfax the company planned to half output of intermediate product alumina at its Italian refinery, Eurallumina, and by 35 percent at its Windalco plant in Jamaica.



UC RUSAL plans to cut its staff by 5 percent, mainly at its foreign production units, he said.



The timetable for building the Boguchany power utility and aluminium plant in Siberia, however, would remain unchanged, Bulygin told Interfax.



UC RUSAL has said the Boguchany smelter would initially be able to produce 600,000 tonnes a year, a level it will reach in the second quarter of 2011 after commissioning in December 2009. Annual output is eventually scheduled to reach 1 million tonnes.



UC RUSAL's total investments in 2009 would be $1 billion, Bulygin said.



UC RUSAL has said it plans to raise output of primary aluminium to 6.2 million tonnes by 2013 from the 4.4 million tonnes expected this year.