Rusal Eyes Growing Demand for Low-Carbon Aluminium in China and Shares Its Views on the Price Advantage of Low-Carbon Aluminium over Thermal Power Aluminium at the SMM Annual Metals Conference

SHANGHAI, Jan 6 (SMM) - The low-carbon aluminium market is developing at a tremendous speed. Compared with traditional thermal power aluminium, the prices of low-carbon aluminium enjoy a certain premium. Since 2021, SMM has introduced the prices of low-carbon aluminium, which enjoyed premiums of 400-500 yuan/mt over the domestic thermal power aluminium. Rusal, who is an important supplier of low-carbon aluminium, has shared its views on the future price advantage of low-carbon aluminium over thermal power aluminium. 

At the Annual Aluminium Trade Win-Win Forum of SMM Annual Metals Conference on December 30, Huang Wenqian, deputy general manager of Shanghai Russia Xibo Economic and Trade Co., Ltd. shared his insights as below:

At present, Europe has a leading price advantage in the world, because the demand for low-carbon aluminium has increased after the Paris Agreement, which is ahead of Asia in this respect. However, under the background of carbon peak and neutrality in China, many enterprises are paying greater attention to the development of low-carbon aluminium full-life cycle.

Currently, Rusal's low-carbon aluminium enjoys premiums of $40-60/mt in Europe, based on the prices of European carbon trading. In China, Rusal provides customers with low-carbon aluminium at a premium. Rusal has obtained third-party certification for its low-carbon aluminium. Currently, Rusal adopts the Austrian certified TUV. Customers who pay a low-carbon premium can download their own electronic low-carbon statement from Rusal’s website, which provides information on the power energy, carbon footprint and the entire low-carbon emission of aluminium purchased. Currently, Rusal sells low-carbon aluminium in the Chinese market at premiums of $20-40/mt. With the increasing demand for low-carbon products, NIO and other car companies will use a greater amount of low-carbon aluminium in their new energy vehicles, which is an important reason why Rusal sees China as an important strategic market.

Rusal, who produces 4 million mt of aluminium annually, will provide more green aluminium to Chinese customers 

What is the development of overseas low-carbon markets and the latest progress of Rusal in low-carbon aluminium?
Huang Wenqian said that Rusal has not been sanctioned since 2018 and its sales in the European and US markets have been relatively stable. Rusal is the world's largest producer of hydropower aluminium, accounting for 21% of the global low-carbon aluminium. Rusal is very much focused on the development of low-carbon aluminium industry. Rusal produces about 15 million mt of bauxite, along with 8 million mt of alumina, as well as 4 million mt of aluminium per year, 99% of which are produced from renewable resources. 

As early as 2017, Rusal has launched its own low-carbon aluminium brand - ALLOW, which has been recognised by many customers around the world. Since 2015 when Rusal had direct customers in China, Rusal has been supporting downstream processing companies and end product companies. Rusal is a designated supplier for many end products, because of the extremely low carbon emissions of ALLOW brand aluminium.  The average carbon emission of ALLOW aluminium in Scope One and Scope Two is about 4 mt, which is 66% lower than the carbon emission level of the entire aluminium industry. And the carbon emission of ALLOW aluminium in Scope Three is 45-80% lower than that of the entire aluminium industry. In particular, ALLOW aluminium has a dominant advantage in carbon emission reduction when compared with aluminium produced with thermal power that is generated by coal. 

China is an important strategic market for Rual. Under the background of good friendship between China and Russia, Ruaal registered a new company in Lingang, Shanghai, giving it the opportunity to directly serve more Chinese customers. Currently, Rusal has 15 low-carbon customers in China, as well as about 50 end customers, thanks to the joint efforts of Rusal's new teams in Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Foshan, and Beijing. It is hoped that Rusal can communicate with more Chinese companies in the application of low-carbon technology. In particular, Rusal has been developing inert anodes for more than a decade, and the daily production has now reached 1 mt, making Rusal a global leader in this regard. For each mt of aluminium produced by using inert anodes, merely 0.01 mt of carbon emissions are generated. The entire electrolytic cells with inert anodes are equivalent to the oxygen emission of 70 hectares of forests. 

Hu Jian, Senior Vice president at SMM, said that Rusal is at the forefront of global aluminium companies in terms of low carbon, and hopes to see more and more Chinese companies strengthen their awareness of low carbon, reduce carbon emissions, and provide society and downstream enterprises with more and more healthier and greener aluminium.