UC Rusal, a leading global aluminum producer based in Moscow, said it plans to sell Alumina Partners of Jamaica (Alpart) to the Chinese state industrial group, Jiuquan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (JISCO) for $299 million.
Alpart is a large production complex, which mines its own bauxite to feed alumina production. Before the shutdown of Alpart from 2009 to 2015, annual production capacity of the complex was 1.65 million metric tons (mt) of cell-grade alumina and 4.9 million mt of bauxite. RUSAL acquired a stake in Alpart in 2007 following the merger of the company’s assets with the alumina assets of Swiss-based Glencore. In 2011, it acquired the rest of Alpart.
While iron and steel production remains the main industry of JISCO, the company develops other business divisions including aluminum, electricity, engineering technical services and more. With this announcement, JISCO enters top 10 producers of aluminum in China, and top 500 China manufacturers for many years.
