Russian aluminium giant Rusal has stated that the recent sanctions imposed by the United States and Britain on Russian metals will not impact its ability to supply aluminium to global markets. The sanctions prohibit the acceptance of new aluminium, copper, and nickel produced by Russia by metal-trading exchanges and bar the import of these metals into the United States and Britain.
In response to the sanctions, the London Metal Exchange (LME) has banned Russian metal produced on or after April 13 from its system. Despite these measures, Rusal has affirmed that its global logistic delivery solutions, access to the banking system, overall production, and quality systems remain unaffected, allowing the company to continue its supply operations.
Notably, Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer outside China, holds a global share of 5.5% and has emphasized that the recent actions do not impose new prohibitions or requirements related to the processing, clearing, or sending of payments by intermediary banks.
While the sanctions target Russian export revenue in response to the conflict in Ukraine, Rusal and Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel have not been directly subjected to Western sanctions. The share of available aluminium stocks of Russian origin in LME-approved warehouses stood at 91% in March, with the proportion of copper stocks at 62% and Russian nickel at 36% of the total.
Following the announcement of the sanctions, aluminium and nickel futures experienced a rally to multi-month highs during early trading on Monday, although both contracts later moderated their gains.