RUSAL Revives Alumina Project in Russia's North

MOSCOW, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The world's top aluminium producer, Russia's UC RUSAL (0486.HK: Quote), will revive a project to build a refinery of intermediate product alumina in the country's north, it said in a statement seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The project to build a 700,000-tonne alumina refinery in the Komi republic has been postponed indefinitely in 2008 as RUSAL decided to cut output of alumina and aluminium due to the global economic crisis, which cut the demand for the light metal.

RUSAL and the government of the Komi province have discussed the possibility to start building the refinery in 2013 and to finish building within four years, the statement said.

RUSAL, which has tycoon Oleg Deripaska as a major shareholder, accounts for around 10 percent of the global output of the lightweight metal.

Its total aluminium output was 3.9 million tonnes in 2009, a reduction of 11 percent from 2008, while alumina output totalled 7.3 million tonnes in 2009, down 36 percent from 2008.

RUSAL has said it would boost alumina output by 11 percent or 800,000 tonnes this year and aluminium by 3 percent or 100,000 tonnes as the market improves.