OREANDA-NEWS. UC RUSAL (SEHK: 486, Euronext: RUSAL/RUAL, Moscow Exchange: RUALR/RUALRS), a leading global aluminium producer, has purchased over 80 different machines and mobile equipment units to strengthen labour mechanisation efforts at its Aluminium Division production sites. The company spent a total of RUR 132 mln on the purchase, R&D and maintenance of auxiliary process machinery for potrooms in 2013 alone.

10 highly maneuverable Bobcat loaders equipped with hydraulic breakers that are vital to facilitate pot treatment operations are arriving at the Bratsk aluminium smelter, and Hencon, another machinery supplier, has designed a customised pot tending vehicle with a set of detachable tools that will help staff in their daily routine on the shop floor.

In 2013, the aluminium smelters in Krasnoyarsk (KrAZ), Irkutsk (IrkAZ), and Novokuznetsk (NkAZ) received 60 diesel lifters worth a total of RUR 42 mln. The latter two smelters also purchased anode paste loaders.

KrAZ continued its conversion programme with a focus on using more Russian-made machinery in its operations. This project has the goal of reducing the costs of manufacturing and maintaining machinery. The smelter's team was able to negotiate prices at 2009 levels and also to cut maintenance budgets using various optimisation measures. In 2013, the project built 9 mobile equipment units, with another 7 to be put into service in 2014 and one of these 'next-generation' machines to be electrically driven. Along with the conversion programme, KrAZ is moving ahead at full speed with engineering and testing modernised pot tending overhead cranes.

'Labour mechanisation contributes to a more rational, more economic resource allocation, lower production costs and improved metal quality. It also helps the company in its ambitions to reduce emissions and improve on other environmental performance parameters, raise productivity and make jobs more attractive', says Evgeny Nikitin, the Head of the Aluminium Division.