United Company RusAl said Monday that it signed a letter of intent to acquire a stake in a Chinese marketing unit to deliver 2 million metric tons of alloys to the Asian market.
The agreement to buy the stake in the sales and marketing subsidiary of arms maker China North Industries Corporation, or NORINCO, also specifies the intent of NORINCO to invest in RusAl's Siberian smelters, the world's top aluminum producer said in a statement.
"Under a long-term contract between RusAl and NORINCO, RusAl will deliver up to two million tons of aluminum alloys worth more than $4 billion a year to the Asian markets from the company's Siberian smelters," RusAl said.
NORINCO's investments in the production of aluminum casting alloys are aimed at increasing the volume of high-tech aluminum production sales on the Chinese market, it said.
The realization of the investment plans will allow it to expand Russian capacities to make products with high added value and increase exports of Russian aluminum production to China and other Asian countries.
The signed letter of intent is an extension of a deal between RusAl and NORINCO struck in November with the signing of an agreement to supply 1.68 million tons of RusAl's aluminum to the Chinese company by 2016.
RusAl has said it plans to secure between five and eight major Chinese buyers on long-term contracts to carve a larger share of the world's biggest market for the metal.
Oleg Deripaska, RusAl's CEO and biggest shareholder, told reporters in Beijing that he expected global demand for aluminum semi-finished products to grow.
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