Accident at hydroelectric plant may affect Rusal's aluminum output

An accident at Siberian Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant last Monday may strongly affect Rusal’s aluminum activities; the company said today it could potentially lose 500,000 tonnes of its production, equivalent to 11% of last year’s output. Emergency power supplies are keeping two smelters close to the dam where a turbine room was flooded killing 12 people and leaving 64 missed, but government officials warned Rusal about potential cuts.

The global crisis have already lead the company to cut 500,000 tonnes from this year’s output, but an even lower production would bring some losses. Rusal produced 1.98 million tonnes of primary aluminium in the first half of 2009, down 10% from the same period of 2008. In a statement, the Russian giant said it is “currently relying on reserve capacities of energy” to its Sayanogorsk units but warned, “the problem of securing long-term power supplies to the two smelters will not be resolved in the near future and there will be a serious threat of a reduction in production volumes”.