Rusal seeks buyers for Windalco as it pulls back from the Caribbean

Russia’s largest aluminium producer, UC Rusal, has started looking for buyers for its Windalco alumina complex in Jamaica and its bauxite operations in Guyana, US-based Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The sources told Bloomberg the plans remain at an early stage and a sale may not happen. Rusal declined to comment to Bloomberg on any potential sale.

The Financial Gleaner awaits responses to queries sent to Rusal and to Mining Minister Floyd Green.

Windalco runs the Ewarton alumina refinery in St Catherine, bauxite mines and the Port Esquivel shipping terminal. It produced 1.565 million tonnes of bauxite and 396,000 tonnes of alumina in 2025, according to Rusal’s annual report. That output made up less than 6 per cent of the 6.858 million tonnes of alumina Rusal produced last year. Rusal has owned all of Windalco since 2014, when the Government of Jamaica sold its remaining 7 per cent stake to the company for US$11 million, credited against debt it owed Rusal.

Windalco is one of four bauxite and alumina operations in Jamaica. The others include the Jamalco refinery in Clarendon, a joint venture between US-based Century Aluminum, with 55 per cent, and the Government, with 45 per cent. China’s state-owned Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company, or JISCO, owns the Alpart refinery in St Elizabeth, which has been closed since 2019. Discovery Bauxite mines ore in St Ann and ships it to Atlantic Alumina’s refinery in Gramercy, Louisiana.

The sector’s export earnings fell to US$606 million in 2025 from US$777 million a year earlier, according to the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2025. Alumina accounted for US$534.5 million of that total, as prices fell 19.7 per cent and export volumes fell 8.9 per cent to 1.42 million tonnes. Windalco’s alumina output last year equalled about 28 per cent of that export volume. Crude bauxite earnings rose 18 per cent to US$71.2 million.

Hurricane Melissa in October 2025 set the industry back further. Alumina production fell 30.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, and repairs continue at both Jamalco and Windalco. The storm also damaged Alpart’s Port Kaiser terminal, which delayed JISCO’s plans to reopen. Even so, the Government expects export earnings to recover to about US$760 million this year, the filing said.

In Guyana, Rusal owns 90 per cent of the Bauxite Company of Guyana, which has capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of bauxite a year. Rusal halted production there at the end of 2019 amid a dispute with workers and mothballed the operation in February 2020.

Rusal expanded into both countries in the 2000s to secure its own supplies of bauxite and alumina for its smelters. In its 2026 first-half report, the company named Jamaica among countries where political and economic changes have affected, and may continue to affect, its operations.

Restrictions on Russian metals since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have forced Rusal to reshape its supply chain. The company lost access to its Mykolaiv refinery in Ukraine and to its share of output from Queensland Alumina Ltd in Australia. It has since bought stakes in alumina producers in China and India, and now relies on Guinea as a key supplier. Rusal said it was 89 per cent self-sufficient in alumina by the end of June.

Rusal itself faces no sanctions, and higher aluminium prices lifted its first-half results. Revenue for the six months to June 30 rose 10.9 per cent to US$8.34 billion. Net profit reached US$419 million, against a loss of US$87 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 64.4 per cent to US$1.23 billion. Net debt, however, rose to US$8.9 billion from US$8.05 billion at the end of 2025.

Rusal cut capital spending to US$652 million from US$707 million, and said limited access to long-term financing has forced it to focus on maintaining existing plants.

business@gleanerjm.com