Rusal's annual net profit has tripled compared with the same period last year, and it is still unknown whether it will continue to achieve good results this year.

With the continuous evolution of the war between Russia and Ukraine, European and American countries have successively announced sanctions against Russia, which in turn affected the normal production of some Russian enterprises, including 00486.HK. However, from the financial results announced by the company, it seems that sanctions do not drag down the company's performance, but further promote performance growth, in which income and net profit increase by 40% and 3.25 times respectively. In addition, the company pointed out that the future is not yet clear.

Rusal announced its 2021 results this morning, with earnings of $11.994 billion, up 40 per cent year-on-year, net profit of $3.225 billion, up 325 per cent year-on-year, and basic earnings per share of $0.212.

Aluminum prices continue to soar, increasing earnings by 40% compared with the same period last year.

It is worth noting that Rusal's earnings increased by 40 per cent year-on-year, due to a sharp rise in aluminum prices during the period, with the average aluminum price rising to $2553 / tonne (up 41.4 per cent year-on-year). At the same time, the London Metal Exchange quoted (up 138.9% to $2303 / tonne) and the average premium (an increase of 270.4% to $250 / tonne). In addition, sales of value-added products increased by 18.1 per cent to 2.034 million tons, accounting for 52 per cent of total production (44 per cent in 2020).

At the same time, global market turmoil has led to an increase in production costs. Driven by increased costs of energy and other materials, the cost per tonne of the aluminium division rose 9.9 per cent to $1661 per tonne in 2021 ($1512 per tonne in 2020).

The impact of sanctions still exists, and the performance of Russian listed companies is worrying.

Rusal pointed out in the financial report that in view of the economic sanctions imposed on Russian individuals and legal entities by the European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and other countries or regions, as well as the anti-sanctions imposed by the Russian government, economic uncertainties have increased, including more volatile equity markets, the devaluation of the Russian rouble, a decline in local and overseas direct investment inflows and a substantial tightening of credit. In particular, some Russian entities may encounter difficulties in accessing international stock and bond markets and may increasingly rely on Russian state banks to finance their operations. The long-term impact of the sanctions imposed and the potential additional sanctions in the future is difficult to determine.

In addition, Russia's Ministry of Economic Affairs recently proposed delisting depositary receipts of Russian companies listed abroad and converting them into domestic shares, according to the Interfax news agency. A delisting mechanism for Russian companies' overseas depositary receipts is being developed; the plan was conceived after the shares of Russian companies collapsed after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

In fact, Russian companies listed on European and American markets have fallen sharply, including Sberbank of the Russian Federation and Lukoil listed in London, England, which have suspended trading after a share price loss of more than 99%. Gazprom, Rosneft and other companies have also fallen sharply.