Rusal's shares fell as much as 4 per cent after the results announcement before rebounding to close up 2.94 per cent at HK$2.80.

Rusal, which won a court ruling on Thursday derailing LME plans to cut logjams in warehouses, said the average LME aluminium price fell 8.6 per cent last year to US$1,845 a tonne.

The company's aluminium output fell nearly 8 per cent last year to 3.86 million tonnes owing to cuts in inefficient capacity.

Rusal, which has been in talks on restructuring its debt of about US$10 billion, said it has completed restructuring negotiations with state lender Sberbank on US$4.9 billion of debt and Gazprombank on US$660 million.

It was in advanced talks on US$3.7 billion of pre-export finance facilities but expected to breach certain covenants, resulting in a default. However, Rusal said management believed the facilities would be renegotiated "in due course" and it should have sufficient liquidity to meet its obligations.

It had also secured additional financing from a major customer and identified non-core assets it could sell if aluminium prices fell further.

Rusal said it expected global demand for aluminium would trend upward, with demand expected to grow 6 per cent to 55 million tonnes this year.

China, the world's top aluminium consumer and producer, was expected to cut production by about three million tonnes this year and the Chinese market was expected to be balanced this year, it said.

China's top producer, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco), swung to a yearly profit last year, but warned it faces challenges in the short term as a glut of some products grips the sector.