SHANGHAI, Oct 15 (SMM) - Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer outside China, plans to supply 300,000-400,000 mt of aluminium to China in 2021, essentially the same level as in 2020, and will significantly increase the sales to China next year, said Roman Andryushin, the company's head of sales in Russia, the CIS and China.

China is the world's largest aluminium producer and usually has little demand for overseas supplies. But the domestic demand recovered quickly after the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that China had to import a record amount of aluminium last year.

The global aluminium shortage has pushed the prices up to $3,169/mt on Thursday, the highest level since July 2008.

Andryushin said that Rusal's total aluminium production will increase to around 4.3 million mt in 2022 due to the planned commissioning of the Taishet smelter. Rusal's production in 2020 stood at 3.8 million mt. Andryushin expects the global aluminium market to have a shortfall of more than 1.5 million mt this year, compared to 1.4 million mt in 2020.

The raw materials and energy has faced more upward pressures, says Alcoa’s analysts at a conference call. The global aluminium demand is expected to grow by 10% in 2021 compared to the previous year, and the demand in 2022 will exceed the level in 2019.