OREANDA-NEWS. UC RUSAL announces its operating results for the third quarter 2016 (“3Q16”).

Aluminium
Aluminium production in 3Q16 totaled 920 thousand tonnes (flat Q-Q), with Siberian smelters representing 94% of total aluminium output. Smelters utilization remained on average at a high of 94%.

3Q16 aluminium sales increased by 2.4% Q-Q to 981 thousand tonnes. The value added products (VAP) sales increased marginally (+0.5% Q-Q), totaling 446 thousand tons.

In 3Q16 the average aluminium realized price increased by 2.5% Q-Q to USD1,754/tonne largely driven by the London Metal Exchange (“LME”) QP component growth from USD1,550/tonne in 2Q16 to USD1,604/tonne in 3Q16. The realized premium decreased from USD162/tonne to USD150/tonne amid lower average commodity premium and higher volumes of commodity grades sales (including purchased volumes).

9M16 aluminium production totalled 2,756 thousand tonnes (+1.2% Y-Y).

9M16 aluminium sales volumes increased to 2,896 thousand tonnes (+4.9% Y-Y) due largely to the additional volumes of the Boguchansky smelter, where the plant is currently operating in test mode. The average realized price in 9M16 was USD1,711/tonne (-18.0% Y-Y). The average price reduction is explained by the structurally different market environment in the 9M 2015 versus 9M 2016 and therefore lower aluminium LME prices and premiums YoY.

Alumina
In 3Q16, total alumina production remained flat Q-Q, totaling 1,865 thousand tonnes. Russian operations represented 36% of the total output, totaling 665 thousand tonnes.

9M16 alumina output totaled 5,588 thousand tonnes (+1.7% Y-Y). The production increase largely came from the Russian operations performance where output increased 3.9% Y-Y, amid higher utilization rates.

Bauxite
In 3Q16, bauxite output totaled 3,211 thousand tonnes (+2.7% Q-Q). The increase came largely from Russian bauxite mining assets performance at North Urals and Timan where subtotal output increased by 8.9% Q-Q. Bauxite Company of Guyana production also increased in 3Q16 by 15.1% Q-Q, amid completion of scheduled repairs that largely impacted previous quarter volumes. The rest of the bauxite operations showed a negative performance that was largely explained by the current production plan and scheduled repairs. The Alpart asset is currently under review ahead of completion of the disposal transaction and as such the operations are currently postponed.

Nepheline ore production decreased by 6.1% Q-Q to 1,135 thousand tonnes amid planned repairs at the facility.

In 9M16, bauxite output totaled 9,346 thousand tonnes (+0.9% Y-Y). Nepheline ore output increased 9.3% Y-Y to 3,454 thousand tonnes.