United Company RUSAL’s Bogoslovsky smelter (BAZ) remains a loss-making business, the enterprise’s Director-General Vladislav Kazachkov said in his interview to Kommersant-Ural.

‘The plant’s losses came to about 180m RUR in 2011. BAZ is unable to compensate its aluminum production losses through the profits the alumina production brings. Sverdlovsk Region is faced with nonsense: BAZ has to pay the electric power price that is twice as high as that in Siberia and one and half times as high as in that in Sweden, where the electric power has always, in fact, been more expensive. In the production of aluminum, which is often called frozen electricity, any sudden price fluctuation (such as the 32% one that occurred in 2011) is keenly felt. This is why we really hope the agreements we came to regarding Bogoslovsky power station do hold. This is a long way to go, but RUSAL aims for strategic development,’ the plant’s head said.