Russia’s RUSAL plans to halve silicon imports by end of 2015

MOSCOW, Feb 2 (PRIME) -- Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL plans to decrease silicon imports by more than 50% by the end of 2015 and raise its own silicon production, the company said in a statement on Monday.

“The industrial production of pure types of silicon with low content of iron is a long-term RUSAL’s strategy for import substitution. Currently, the company purchases the production in China, but we will be able to cover about 90% of our plants’ total demand for silicon with our own production by the end of the year under favorable conditions,” the company quoted its CEO Vladislav Solovyov as saying.

The company has already produced the first test batches of silicon type 2052 with iron content of 0.25% and they are continuing to produce silicon type 2002 with iron content of up to 0.2%. The company has also constructed a line for hand processing of quartzite at its Cheremshansky mine under program for finding raw materials for silicon type 2002 production.

In 2015, the company plans to invest over U.S. $10 billion on upgrading its silicon production.

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