Ukraine's September exports of alumina down 36.3% year on year

　　Ukraine's exports of alumina dropped by 36.3% to 77,740 mt in September from 121,990 mt a year earlier and were down 8.1% from 84,580 mt in August, a government official said Monday, citing preliminary statistics.

　　Alumina is a raw material used for production of aluminum.

　　Ukraine's exports of alumina in January-September fell 7.1% year-on-year to 1.065 million mt from 1.146 million mt, the official said.

　　Ukraine's only producer of the commodity, the Mykolayiv Alumina Plant, owned by Rusal, exports most of its output to Russia.

　　MAP is capable of producing 1.6 million mt/year of alumina, but plans to increase its capacity to 1.7 million mt/year by the end of 2012.

　　Ukraine exported 1.554 million mt of alumina in 2011, up 7.9% from 1.44 million mt in 2010.