SMM, Sept. 11: Rusal wants to build a new aluminum smelting project in Siberia, but its plans have been complicated by U. S. sanctions, the head of the Russian hydropower company, Nikolai Shulginov said on Monday.

Rusal is now the world's second-largest aluminium producer. The project was shelved in 2009 because of weak aluminium prices, but resumed last year as prices rebounded. In April, the Russian hydropower board approved plans to join the project, with a total investment of about $1 billion. But things have become complicated since the US imposed sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs, including Oleg Deripasca (Oleg Deripaska), a former Rusal controlling shareholder.

"A few months ago, before sanctions were tightened, we were in a decisive stage of joining the project under certain conditions," Shulginov told reporters at a newly launched power station. U. S. sanctions against Rusal have wreaked havoc on the global aluminum market. Rusal accounted for more than 6 per cent of the global aluminium supply last year, estimated at about 63 million tons.

"now, given the sanctions, everything has changed," Shulginov stressed. We have to replan the structure of the project, aluminum prices, electricity prices, and so on.

(state development bank VEB), the Russian state development bank, has suspended financing for the (Taishet aluminum smelter) construction of the Taichte aluminium plant, but has not yet suspended the deal. Taichte aluminum plant is expected to raise a total of $1 billion, 30 per cent of which will be provided by the Russian state development bank.

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