Sales of value-added products, such as billet, foundry and slab, reached 256,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2019 compared with 333,000 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2018.
First-quarter sales were down 44.1% year on year from the first quarter of 2018, when 463,000 tonnes were sold.
Rusal noted that the sanctions imposed by the United States significantly challenged its first quarter. The sanctions were removed on January 27, 2019, after 10 months.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control, part of the US Treasury Department, imposed the sanctions against Rusal on April 6, 2018.
With the Rusal sanctions, the premium for VAPs spiked in Germany to a record high.
Fastmarkets assessment of the...
