Rusal: Industry to remain under pressure

摘要

Russian aluminium producer Rusal expects pressure on the market to continue into the second half of 2016 after the companys profit for January-June fell by 70pc year on year. The company forecasts that demand for aluminium will rise year-on-year, up by 5.4pc to 59.5mn t, driven primarily by an increase in Chinese demand and growth in the US automotive sector. But supply increased over the first half of 2016, Rusal said, on the back of new smelters coming on line in Malaysia and India, offsetting production cutbacks and closures in the US and Europe. This contrasts with figures from the International Aluminium Institute, which said that global aluminium production was down 1.2pc in the first seven months of this year, falling to 33.12mn t compared with 33.51mn t from January-July 2015. The institute did say that output in Asian nations other than China rose 14.8pc to 1.935mn t.