February 20, 2014. United Company RUSAL's enterprises located in the Urals produced less aluminum and alumina in 2013 than a year earlier, the company's press service reports.

In 2013, the Urals-based enterprises produced more than 73,000,000 kg of aluminum, 1,733,000,000 kg of alumina, and 2,498,000,000 kg of bauxite. The company does not specify how much the aluminum and alumina production outputs dropped.

'The decrease of aluminum production last year has to do with the implementation of a special program that made it necessary to put a temporary halt on aluminum production at the least efficient plants – that is, the plants where the metal production prime cost is much higher than profitability, the company says.

UC RUSAL explained the drop in alumina production was related to improvements in the production plan. For one, Cheremukhovskaya-Glubokaya Mine operated by SUBR (Severouralsk) is expected to be commissioned this year to develop the company's ore resource base. The mine is expected to produce 3,000,000,000,000 kg of bauxite a year.