United Company RUSAL’s Press Service came up with the results of a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center. The survey aimed to find out Russian people’s attitude toward aluminum and to gauge their knowledge of the subject. ‘Aluminum is the most well-known metal in Russia, and the country’s industrial development as a whole is inherently connected with the development of aluminum industry in particular,’ the survey maintains.

More than 55% of respondents living in different parts of Russia believe aluminum is Russia’s most popular metal, followed by gold and iron. 95% of those surveyed feel aluminum industry is strategically important for Russia’s winning larger shares of international markets. Yet, despite the general recognition of this metal’s economic importance and its unique properties (that is, lightness, durability, and electro conductivity), a lot of respondents (36%) say they still stereotypically perceive aluminum as a metal for making cheap tableware. At the same time, 60% say that aluminum has a lot of potential as a ‘metal of the future’ and feel that the twenty-first century is the Age of Aluminum.

Says UC RUSAL’s Strategy and Corporate Development Director Artem Volynets: ‘The global consumption of aluminum goes up by 5% to 7% a year, largely due to the current industrial growth in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC), the rise of the automobile industry, and heavier use of aluminum for construction and packaging purposes. The demand for this product is expected to double in the near future; as for Russia, this metal’s innovational properties haven’t been fully investigated here yet, which means the current perception of its potential is rather limited.’

UC RUSAL thought a good way of improving the general public’s awareness of the importance of aluminum would be to set up a special website www.aluminiumleader.com. This link now provides all the information available on this metal: its history, production technology, and fields of application. The site is meant to promote the whole branch rather than just this or that product, service, or company.

United Company RUSAL is the world’s largest primary aluminum producer; its plants produced over 3.9 million tons of primary aluminum last year, which makes up about one-sixth of the global aluminum output.