BEIJING: Chinese aluminium prices fell to their lowest in more than two years on Friday and clocked a third successive monthly decline, as stalling manufacturing growth compounded plentiful supply amid relatively lenient winter output curbs.
China's official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 50 in November, missing market expectations and down from 50.2 in October.
Shanghai aluminium shed 2.8 percent over November, which saw two-year lows hit several times, leaving smelters in China struggling to turn a profit and leading some to cut output even without being ordered to do so on environmental grounds.
Despite the poor PMI data, other metals rose on end-of-month short covering ahead of the meeting between the presidents of China and the United States at the G20 in Argentina.
In China, "we are moving into an 'all bad news is good news' scenario as a multi-lever policy response is now expected," John Browning, managing director of Bands Financial, wrote in a note.
FUNDAMENTALS
* ALUMINIUM: The most traded January aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell as much as 1 percent to 13,535 yuan ($1,949.39) a tonne, the lowest since Oct. 10, 2016, before closing on 13,555 yuan.
* ALUMINIUM: Norwegian metals maker Norsk Hydro expects global primary aluminium demand growth to slow next year and says it is being impacted "heavily" by an output slowdown at a key alumina plant in Brazil.
* COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange edged up 0.3 percent to $6,229.50 a tonne by 0707 GMT, heading for a monthly rise of 4 percent, while ShFE copper closed up 0.4 percent at 49,720 yuan a tonne.
* CODELCO: Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, said mine output fell 3 percent in the first nine months of the year as ore grades sharply declined.
* OTHER METALS: Shanghai zinc and nickel performed best, closing up 2.3 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, on Friday. ShFE zinc ended November down 3.3 percent, its first monthly drop in four, while nickel lost 7.5 percent for its worst month since September 2017.
* SHFE STOCKS: Aluminium inventories in warehouses monitored by the ShFE <AL-STX-SGH> fell by 19,099 tonnes, or 2.5 percent, week-on-week to 731,130 tonnes, the exchange said on Friday.
Zinc stocks <ZN-STX-SGH> were down 24.5 percent to 26,779 tonnes, the lowest since 2007.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or
MARKETS NEWS
* Asian shares wavered on Friday as investors were on edge before a crucial weekend meeting between the Chinese and U.S. presidents that could determine the course of a heated trade war over the next year.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.