A confidential Government report has detailed that Aughinish Alumina has increasingly “struggled” to sell material produced in the Co Limerick plant to European countries, due to concerns about the company’s Russian ownership.
Exports of alumina from Aughinish to Russia “have significantly increased since 2020 and at a more pronounced level since 2022”, the unpublished Department of Enterprise report said.
The department was tasked with investigating a report by The Irish Times, in co-operation with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, that drew on leaked documents to show Aughinish Alumina is shipping vast amounts of alumina to smelters in Russia.
These smelters sell finished aluminium to a trading company called ASK, which supplies the alloy to Russian arms and missile manufacturers.
The department report, completed in recent days and seen by The Irish Times, said the Shannon refinery was “financially dependent” on its parent company, Russian metals giant Rusal.
The company sourced “virtually all” of its bauxite, the material refined into alumina, from a Rusal-owned mine in Guinea, and from mines in Brazil partially owned by Rusal, the report said.
Aughinish Alumina’s share of the alumina market had “eroded in recent years due to sanctions-related commercial pressures”, the report continued.
The company was facing a “marked” decline in orders received from other European countries, a “narrowing” of its customer base and a “loss of key contracts”.
From the Shannon to Siberia: How alumina from a Limerick refinery enters Russia’s weapons supply chain
- Aughinish Alumina in Co Limerick supplies vast amounts of raw materials to Russian aluminium smelters, according to an investigation by The Irish Times and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
- Read the full investigation here.
Exports from the plant to the Netherlands, Norway and France had dropped. Speaking on RTÉ on Friday morning, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said this was due to fears of “reputational damage” resulting from connections to Aughinish.
The Co Limerick refinery made up for this shortfall by shipping more product to Russia, according to the unpublished report.
The department said the Government and EU authorities would need to work with the Co Limerick plant and “the limited number of potential customers” to help it pivot away from its reliance on the Russian market, if it wanted it to diversify.
Separately, a complex array of Cypriot and Middle Eastern companies which do business with Aughinish Alumina raise concerns about sanctions circumvention by its Russian parent company, the Government’s report found.
These concerns, which were not detailed in a brief summary of the report published on Friday, relate to various companies operated by Rusal, the Russian metals giant which owns Aughinish.
Aughinish states it does not have a contract with Rusal Trading House. Rather its contract was with Rusal Trading International before moving to AL Plus Trading in Cyprus before then moving to another company in Qatar, the report found.
“To further complicate matters, Aughinish has stated that it engages with newly established arms of the Rusal group which have minor variations to their name but are often registered or operate in different jurisdictions,” the report states.
Aughinish’s “intra-group shared service provider” was Libertatem Materials in Cyprus before moving to Libertatem Investments in Qatar, it stated.
The report states this raises “concerns” about financing and potential sanctions circumvention by Rusal.
“The previous companies continue to exist but the engagements by Aughinish with Rusal are through the new entities,” the unpublished report stated.
The investigation also found other “very similar named companies” in Dubai and Cyprus.
It said none of these companies are “established, operated or controlled” by Aughinish but they do “raise concerns about financing and potential circumvention” by its parent company.
The company’s explanation for a “major error” in export figures it provided to customs authorities – which were later published by the Central Statistics Office – was that a clerical mistake resulted in statistics being supplied in “tonnes rather than kilograms.”
In a statement, Aughinish Alumina said it welcomed the outcome of the investigation and was willing to take part in any work to enhance the traceability of alumina made in Ireland.
“As a supplier of a critical raw material to Europe and as a large regional employer, Aughinish will continue to co-operate with all Government departments,” the company said.