Comparative Analysis of Determinants of Global Competitiveness of Russian and World Aluminum Companies: Costs Structure

This work is devoted to the analysis of the factors of competitiveness of the aluminium companies in Russia and abroad. The emphasis is on cost analysis, operating and capital costs of the companies. Author reviewed the current situation of the aluminum industry in Russia and in the world, explored approaches to the definition of competitiveness and theoretical methods for evaluating the competitiveness of enterprises. After that author identified factors of competitiveness of the companies of the aluminum industry and impact which these factors had on production costs. Based on the analysis of panel data about operating and capital costs by 15 key companies of the sector we evaluated different specification of models (pool, fe- and re-models) and the best were chosen. In accordance with the results of the evaluation we show the ranking of companies in terms of relative advantage for the operating and capital costs. In conclusion it was revealed for which players in the global aluminum industry a Russian company is closer in terms of operating and capital costs, as well as the fact that for the cost equations for the aluminum industry it is important to take into account the price factor.