Russian aluminum producer United Company Rusal Plc has reduced its first-quarter sales of value-added products (VAP) by 44 percent from a year ago and by 22 percent from the last quarter of 2018 because of sanctions by the United States. Washington imposed the sanctions on Rusal, the world’s largest aluminum producer outside China, in April 2018 but lifted them on Jan. 27 as company co-owner Oleg Deripaska reduced his stake after months of talks and several extensions of the deadline for sanctions to take full effect. Despite the lifting of the sanctions, the company said that its sales of VAP metal – alloyed ingots, slabs, and some other products – were affected in the first quarter since the contracts were constrained by being signed while the company was still under the sanctions. Sales of VAP metal fell to 259,000 tonnes in the first quarter, while […]