FAS appeals against cancellation of warning to Rusal on aluminum prices
The Federal Antimonopoly Service intends to appeal the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court to cancel the warning of the aluminum company Rusal about domestic aluminum prices.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service intends to appeal the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court to cancel the warning of the aluminum company Rusal about domestic aluminum prices. This was reported by the press service of the FAS.
The warning concerned the conditions of supply of aluminum to the Russian market. In March, the service demanded that Rusal change contracts so that prices for Russian consumers do not exceed export prices.
On October 5, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the requirement of Rusal and canceled the FAS warning, a source in the aluminum industry told RBC.
Earlier, the company twice asked to extend the deadline for execution of the warning – first until May 29, then until the end of June, but the requirements were not fulfilled. In June, the head of the FAS Maxim Shakolsky said that further extension of the period is not planned, and the new pricing formula should ensure the priority of the domestic market.
On June 23, Rusal filed a lawsuit against the FAS, and in July the service opened a case for failure to comply with the warning. According to the agency, the company took into account the regional premium based on the European indicator, although the bulk of aluminum is supplied to Asia. As a result, Russian processors, according to the FAS, were in less favorable conditions than foreign buyers.
In the first half of 2026, according to the report of Rusal, $ 4.8 billion, or 58% of revenue, accounted for Asia, 27% ($ 2.29 billion) – for the CIS countries, 12% ($ 983 million) – for Europe and 1% – for the Americas.
Against the background of the dispute with the FAS, Rusal discussed with the department a new approach to pricing. Deputy General Director of the group Oleg Vaitman on the air of the RBC TV channel said that the company has been conducting this dialogue for about six months. According to him, the process is delayed due to “non-obvious factors” that must be taken into account when developing a new formula.
Meanwhile, in late September, the interlocutors of RBC announced the company’s intention to offer a new formula for calculating the price of primary aluminum in the Russian market. It will take into account the quotes of the London Metal Exchange (LME) with regional premiums for major export destinations and the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) index for the domestic market of China. The share of components will be recalculated every six months, taking into account the export structure of the company.
The FAS told RBC that the new formula was not coordinated with it and the agency continues to discuss with Rusal and consumers an option that takes into account the interests of all market participants. In “Rusal” claim that the formula was developed taking into account the position of the Ministry, as well as the Ministry of industry and trade and customers.
