OREANDA-NEWS. March 12, 2010. UC RUSAL, (SEHK: 486), (EuroNext: RUSAL/RUAL), the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, announces the restart of production capacities at Site #1 of the Novokuznetsk aluminium smelter (NkAZ), which were suspended in March 2009 as part of the anti-crisis Cost Efficiency Leader programme. The restart of the pots proves that the company has fully mastered a technology enabling a rapid response to changes in demand and aluminium prices.

Site #1 has already brought back online 183 pots, with a total of 264 pots expected to be operational by early April. As a result of it, in 2010 the output from NkAZ would reach approximately 253,000 tonnes, 10% more than last year.

‘Restarting an idled aluminium smelting site is a complicated technical challenge that requires a deep knowledge of the technological processes,’ said Alexey Arnautov, the head of RUSAL’s Aluminium Division. ‘It took RUSAL’s teams, who demonstrated their great professionalism, less than three months to complete almost a half of all the scheduled pot restarts. The successful restart of Site #1 at the Novokuznetsk aluminium smelter gives the business the flexibility required for adapting its output to changing demand. The example of NkAZ also shows that the company is able to restart aluminium production regardless of seasonal or weather conditions, which we think is particularly important as most our operations are located in Siberia.’

Over 200 employees from those who were temporarily moved to work at other facilities of the smelter have returned to work since the beginning of the capacity restart. Site #1 has also additionally hired 265 people.