Russia's Klyuchevsky Ferroalloys Plant, the world's top chrome producer, has been forced to reduce output as the global financial crisis cuts demand for the metal used in household goods.

"We still have some stockpiled metal left and we do not want to overload our warehouses," Vadim Dynin, spokesman for the plant's owners, Rosspetssplav, or Russian Special Alloys, said on Tuesday.

"We adjust our production plans on a weekly basis depending on demand," he said, adding the Klyuchevsky plant would work for only three weeks in November.

Klyuchevsky, in the Sverdlovsk region in the Ural mountains, produced 714.8 tonnes of chrome metal in October, of which it exported 565 tonnes, Dynin said. He gave no more details about the planned production cut.

The plant also produces over 30 types of ferroalloys used mainly to toughen steel.

Dynin said that another plant controlled by Rosspetsplav, Russian Chrome 1915, had sent its employees on partially paid leave for the whole of November. Russian Chrome 1915 produces chromic oxide, from which chrome metal is made.

Dynin said the plant would honour all its contracts this year using stockpiled product.

Chrome metal is used to make kitchen and bathroom goods as well as in the super-alloy industry, particularly in the production of nickel- and cobalt-based alloys for aerospace, dental and medical applications. – Guardian