Rusal has applied to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to temporarily mothball part of its Russian raw-material processing capacity, Russian media report. Proposed idled assets include the Pikalyovo alumina refinery, the North Urals bauxite mine, the Bogoslovsk alumina plant and the Ural alumina plant. Rusal estimates the raw-material processing unit loses about $400 per tonne of aluminium, or roughly $800m a year, and says restarting the business would require about $1.8bn of investment. The com

2026-08-28

Rusal has applied to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to temporarily mothball part of its Russian raw-material processing capacity, Russian media report. Proposed idled assets include the Pikalyovo alumina refinery, the North Urals bauxite mine, the Bogoslovsk alumina plant and the Ural alumina plant. Rusal estimates the raw-material processing unit loses about $400 per tonne of aluminium, or roughly $800m a year, and says restarting the business would require about $1.8bn of investment. The company has requested rail-freight subsidies, preferential port transshipment rates for imported bauxite—totaling around $70m a year in support—and government aid for the affected regions.