After successfully taking advantage of the open arbitrage between London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange aluminium prices in the previous quarter, Rusal is focusing on expanding its market share in Asia.
In an interview with Fastmarkets on Tuesday July 28, Rusal sales and marketing director Roman Andryushin said the Chinese aluminium market could be a long-term focus of Rusal.
"I do see our sales volume to Asia growing mostly on the back of Chinese opportunities, which we are exploring now," Andryushin said.
"We are probably the most efficient and quickest that is why we have captured this market opportunity to the biggest extent. It is a highly opportunistic market, and everything depends on the market arbitrage."
In Rusal's second-quarter results released on July 27, the company said
Asia's share of sales grew to 27%, versus 15% in the first quarter of 2020.
It said the shift reflects less severe lockdown measures in Asia and one-off arbitrage opportunities in China.
The SHFE aluminium price rose over by 20%...