The US government's easing of sanctions on Rusal benefits the Russian aluminium producer's employees, US consumers of the metal - and any potential buyers of Oleg Deripaska's shareholding, writes Lord Copper.
"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a Line,Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."Well, that's what Omar Kayyam said, anyway; Steve Mnuchin, on the other hand, has no problem with the finger going back and changing what it had first written. At least, not when it comes to sanctions on parts of the Russian aluminium industry and its bosses. To recap, the initial sanction established by the United States was against Oleg Deripaska, Rusal and EN+. That resulted in a surge in the aluminium price and a savage drop in the equity prices of both companies.Perhaps more disturbingly, that decision left hanging the question of where the product to replace what could no longer be imported might come from. Fair enough; as I wrote in a previous article,...