April 29 (Reuters) - Russia's Rusal Plc 0486.HK reported a 1.7-percent rise in first quarter aluminium production from a year earlier and said there were signs metal prices were improving thanks to global output cuts.
Rusal, which slipped last year to world No.2 aluminium producer behind China's Hongqiao 1378.HK , has been hit by a slump in metal prices, but said production cuts outside China and limited restarts of smelters in that country were helping turn around the market.
"Aluminum world (ex-China) production data for March 2016 from CRU evidenced that capacity closures that took place in 4Q15-1Q16 have started to influence the market," Rusal said in its quarterly report on Friday. CRU Group is a metals consultancy.
London Metal Exchange aluminium prices CMAL3 have jumped 10 percent since the start of the year.
Rusal's aluminium production rose to 916,000 tonnes in the three months to March from 900,000 tonnes a year earlier. Output fell slightly from the December quarter.
It said it had started testing its new Boguchansky smelter, selling 39,000 tonnes from the Russian plant in the first quarter.
Average sales prices slumped 28 percent from the same period a year ago and were down 3.6 percent from the December quarter.
Rusal confirmed it would pay off $700 million in debt due in 2016 after lining up a refinancing earlier this week. The debt payment included $109 million of its own funds, it said. Company continues to actively explore further opportunities for the optimization of its debt structure," Oleg Mukhamedshin, Rusal's strategy director, said in a statement.