Oct 25 2005
SUAL Group has announced its production results for the first nine months of 2005. The results show that production continues to grow across the SUAL Group. The overall production volume exceeded the results for the same period of 2004.
SUAL Group's overall production of bauxite for the first nine months 2005 was 3.97 million tonnes, an increase of 4.8% on the year. The bauxite output increase at the Middle-Timan Mine compensated for the bauxite output decrease at SUBR due to the ore depletion of the Ivdelsk open pits and mines 15-15 bis and 16-16 bis. With the operational launch of the Novo-Kalyinskaya mine in Q3 2005, SUBR's capacity will be maintained with no expected displacement of workers.
SUAL Group's businesses produced 1.72 million tonnes of alumina for the first nine months of 2005. The addition of Zaporozhye Aluminium Smelter (ZALK) to the SUAL Group provided the majority of the 11.1% growth in production volume despite a temporary decrease of production volume at Pikalevo Alumina Refinery. The decrease was due to a shortage of nepheline concentrate, which is now being supplemented with bauxite.
For the first nine months of 2005, SUAL Group's overall production of primary aluminium was 782,400 tonnes. This 13.3% year-on-year growth was again primarily due to the incorporation of ZALK into SUAL Group, a number of technical improvements and the continual optimization of production parameters.
SUAL Group's production of silicon increased by 19.1% for the first nine months of 2005. This year-on-year growth was due to the expanded supply to the domestic market and the incorporation of the Zaporozhye Aluminium Smelter.
The output of SUAL Group's downstream businesses continues to significantly increase due to reconstruction, technical upgrades, aggressive marketing policies and management system improvements. The production of rolled and semi-finished products for the first nine months of 2005 exceeded last year's results for the same period by 7.6%. The output of foil and aluminium strips increased by 11.5% on the year. Consumer goods output for the first nine months of 2005 increased by 7.2%.
Cable production output for the first nine months of 2005 decreased by 0.4% on the year. However, in value terms the production volume grew due to the re-profiling of the product portfolio in favour of high value-added production.
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