EsThe U.S. Treasury Department has extended sanctions against Russian business in relation to the Russian government’s “malign activities” globally. This includes the EN+ Group and its Rusal subsidiary in the aluminum industry, S&P Global Market Intelligence reports. The sanctions prevent U.S. persons from dealing with the companies, and so may have an impact upon U.S. aluminum imports.
As outlined in Panjiva research of March 27 Russian exports of aluminum were worth $1.57 billion in 2017, and are already subject to 10% additional duties under the section 232 duties applied from January 31. By comparison Rusal’s sales were worth $1.4 billion according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data, or 14.4% of its total sales.
Panjiva data shows Rusal’s seaborne exports of aluminum products to the U.S. have already begun to fall in response to the new duties, with a 29.2% drop in the first quarter vs. the fourth quarter and by 41.7% on a year earlier.
Source: Panjiva
The leading products supplied in the past 12 months, by weight, have included raw aluminum (41.3%, which are not exposed to the new duties but still will be blocked by Treasury), processed bars and profiles (36.9%) and aluminum foil (5.7%). Buyers of Rusal product, as well as traders including Goldman Sachs’s J.Aron and Citigroup, will need to update their supply chains to deal with the sanctions.
Source: Panjiva
