Jan-Aug, Russia increased exports of aluminum by 16% to $4.2 bn.

January-August 2006, export proceeds from sales of Russian primary aluminum totaled $4.224 bn, which is 16.4% more than for the same period of last year - $3.628 bn, the Federal Customs Service says.

There were delivered 2.721 mln tons of green aluminum to foreign consumers against 2.768 mln tons in January-August 2005.

Exports of nickel amounted to 167.8 th tons (an increase of 0.6%), and proceeds from its sales grew by 24.7% to $3.192 bn from $2.56 bn. Exports of copper decreased by 9.3% to 163.5 th tons from 180.3 th tons, while receipts grew by 67.9% to $974.4 mln from $580.2 mln.

Almost all this metal was sold to far-abroad countries, as in the same period of last year. Exports to the CIS countries totaled 5.3 th tons of aluminum worth $11.5 mln, 1,000 tons of copper worth $5.5 mln and 400 tons of nickel worth $6.9 mln.