Russia: RUSAL reports interim results for H1CY’24

RUSAL, one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, has announced its financial results for the six months ending June 2024 (H1’CY24). In H1CY’24, the company’s operational and financial performance came under significant pressure due to global economic uncertainty, weak demand, deteriorating market conditions, new restrictions on Russian metal particularly premium types and declining global prices.
However, cost reductions helped counterbalance the revenue decline and enabled positive profit growth during the reporting period.

Adjusted EBITDA surged by 171% to $786 million, compared to $290 million for the same period in 2023.

Adjusted net profit rose by 42% to $446 million, up from $315 million in the same period last year.

Revenue for the H1CY’24 declined by 4.2% compared to the same period in 2023, totalling $5,695 million, down from $5,945 million. This decrease was primarily due to a drop in revenue from aluminium and alloy sales, driven by several factors:

• Aluminium sales fell by 2.9%, reaching 1.87 mnt compared to 1.93 mnt in the same period of 2023.
• Production of value-added products (VAP) decreased by 7.0%, totalling 0.74 mnt, down from 0.79 mnt in the previous year.
• The weighted average premium over the London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium price dropped by 20.5%, averaging $159/t in H1CY’24, compared to $200/t in the same period of 2023.
• The weighted average selling price of aluminum fell by 2.2%, to $2,447/t in H1CY’24, down from $2,501/t in H1CY’23.

Aluminium production

In addition, in H1CY’24, aluminium production reached 1.95 mnt, a 2.3% increase from 1.91 mnt in the same period last year. This growth is attributed to the gradual increase in output at the Taishet smelter, one of Russia’s largest non-ferrous smelters and one of the most environmentally friendly aluminium smelters globally. Alumina production also saw an 18.9% increase, reaching 2.9 mnt compared to 2.51 mnt in the previous year, driven by the acquisition of a 30% stake in the Chinese company, Hebei Wenfeng New Materials, among other factors.