MOSCOW, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Russian aluminium producer Rusal , under U.S. sanctions since April, increased itsaluminium exports by 7 percent in August compared to theprevious month, Interfax news agency said.
Rusal, the world's second-largest aluminium producer, sawits exports and supply chain crippled after Washington put thecompany and co-owner Oleg Deripaska on a blacklist, seeking topunish Russia for alleged meddling in U.S. elections.
U.S. customers must wind down business with the company byOct. 23, according to the sanctions. But aluminium shipments continue in the meantime and Rusalexported 281,000 tonnes last month, Interfax said, citing datafrom Russian Railways, the state company that operates Russia'svast railway network.
Between January and August, Rusal's aluminium exportstotalled 1.81 million tonnes, up 18 percent compared to the sameperiod the previous year, Interfax said, citing the data.
Rusal contested the numbers.
"These figures cannot be considered correct as this isunofficial information from Russian Railways, which does nottake into account real sales and a range of other factors," thecompany said.
Rusal declined to provide its own figures on aluminiumexports for August.
Interfax gave no further details about its data. The dataprobably refers to deliveries of aluminium from Rusal's plantsby rail to port stations, a source close to Rusal said earlier,indicating that the figures do not explain whether the aluminiumsubsequently crossed the border or was stockpiled near it.
Last year, Rusal, in which Deripaska's En+ is acontrolling shareholder, sold 3.95 million tonnes of aluminium,of which 42 percent was shipped to Europe.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editingby Dale Hudson)