PRICING NOTICE: Update on Fastmarkets’ aluminium premiums following Rusal sanction removal

Fastmarkets will again accept Rusal material produced after April 6, 2018, in its aluminium price assessments following the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) decision to remove sanctions imposed on UC Rusal.

The US sanctions on Rusal were removed on Sunday January 27, 2019, having been imposed on April 6, 2018.

Transactions, bids and offers in the United States, Japan and Europe for Rusal’s aluminium ingots and t-bars and products produced both before and after April 6 will now be taken into consideration during the price assessment process.

This includes Fastmarkets’ benchmark P1020 premiums in Rotterdam, Italy, the US Midwest and main Japanese ports (MJP) as well as the billet and primary foundry alloy premiums.

Following the US sanctions being imposed on Rusal in April, Fastmarkets followed guidance provided by OFAC and the London Metal Exchange and all data for Rusal’s aluminium ingots and products produced after April 6 was discarded during the price assessment process.

The LME introduced a “temporary conditional suspension” on placing Rusal metal on-warrant in response to the sanctions. This suspension has now been removed allowing the warranting of Rusal dated before and after April 6, 2018, to resume.

The LME notice released on January 28 also said its members are now free to enter into contracts with Rusal.

Fastmarkets reserves the right, as per its methodology, to discard any pricing data that it views as non-reflective of the spot market.

To see all Fastmarkets’ pricing methodology and specification documents go https://www.metalbulletin.com/prices/pricing-methodology.html.

What to read next
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for its global soybean prices, via an open consultation process between April 15 and May 10, 2025. This consultation was done as part of our annual methodology review process.
Due to the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day on Monday May 19, these prices will be published instead on May 20, in accordance with Fastmarkets’ policy. This change was not initially noted on Fastmarkets’ 2025 pricing schedule. The pricing schedule has now been updated. The affected prices are:MB-STE-0093 steel scrap, auto bundle scrap, […]
Fastmarkets proposes to launch Nordic sawn timber export prices for selected European markets and grades, while discontinuing the PIX Sawn Timber FAS Finland indices. The PIX sawn timber FAS Finland indices have not been widely adopted by the industry and the new price assessments will offer more end-market-specific data for major European markets and will […]
To increase transparency, Fastmarkets has further clarified how it handles price movements during periods of low liquidity. Factors that Fastmarkets may consider during times of low liquidity include, but are not limited to: market fundamentals such as changes in inventory levels, shipments, operating rates and export volumes; relative fundamentals of similar commodities in the same […]
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for PIX Packaging GCC indices via an open consultation process between April 16 and May 14, 2025. This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process. Full details of the prices covered by this consultation can be found here. No feedback […]
Fastmarkets is inviting feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for the PIX Forest Biomass Finland price indices, as part of its announced annual methodology review process. This consultation, which is open until June 12, 2025, seeks to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical market under indexation, in compliance with the […]