Industry group urges EU to impose wider sanctions on Russian aluminium

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) – The European Union should impose broader import bans on Russian aluminium as part of its latest package of sanctions, industry group European Aluminium said on Friday.

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a new package of sanctions against Moscow, including a ban on imports of diamonds and liquid petroleum gas from Russia.

It also included limited bans on aluminium products, such as wires, tubes and pipes, but these only make up 12% of EU aluminium imports from Russia, the group said in a statement.

“We strongly encourage the European Union to accelerate its efforts and broaden their scope to cover all major product categories,” said Director General Paul Voss.

In July, the group sent a letter to members saying it had discussed the possibility of “actively calling for EU sanctions on Russian aluminium”, but not on Russian major producer Rusal .

While substituting other supply for Russian ingots would be feasible in Europe, the wide global spread of Rusal’s operations makes sanctions on that company more problematic, July’s memorandum said.

Friday’s statement did not mention Rusal, which produced 4 million metric tons of primary aluminium last year, about 6% of global supply.

European Aluminium members include refiners, smelters, manufacturers of semi-finished products and recyclers, including top producers Hydro (NHY.OL), Alcoa (AA.N) and Rio Tinto (RIO.L).

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