Rusal To Buy Power Station Supplying Bogoslovsk Smelter
08 Diciembre 2011 - 1:19PM
Noticias Dow Jones
World largest aluminum maker United Co. Rusal (0486.HK) said
Thursday it had agreed to buy the power station that supplies one
of its Urals plants, thus solving a high electricity tariff problem
there.
Rusal said it has agreed to buy Bogoslovsk power station, which
supplies its Bogoslovsk aluminum smelter from IES Holding Ltd.
(IES.TV), controlled by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.
Rusal declined to comment when asked to clarify the details of
the deal.
The deal was agreed with the mediation of the Ministry on
Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Energy, as well as Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin, who Thursday mentioned the deal in his
comment put up on the government's website.
"The electricity tariff has grown considerably in the recent
time, which has immediately made the Bogoslovsk smelter
unprofitable," Putin said, according to the government website.
"The local authorities setting the tariff, based on the general
needs of the region, shouldn't put some enterprises on the brink of
bankruptcy."
Rusal said it will now focus on bringing the Bogoslovsk smelter
to a break-even point and over the next five years will upgrade it,
keeping the production rates at the level no lower than that in
2011.
The plant, employing 3,300 people according to Putin, has an
annual production capacity of 187,000 tons of aluminum. It wasn't
immediately clear how much aluminum Rusal planned to produce at the
smelter this year.
Interfax reported on Nov. 15, citing the Minister of Industry of
the Sverdlovsk region (where the plant is located) Alexander Petrov
that Rusal was planning to partially close the smelter citing the
unprofitability of the production at the facility.
Rusal said at the time it was closing some of the electrolysis
baths at the plant to "optimize" the production as the electricity
tariffs had grown too high, according to Interfax.
-By Nadia Popova, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 232-9192,
nadia.popova@dowjones.com