Aluminium extends rally on Rusal supply concerns

LONDON: Aluminium prices extended their rally on Wednesday to a sixth straight session, hitting an 11-week peak, amid persistent worries about shortages after the United States imposed sanctions on Russia's Rusal.

Several metals went into the red after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Russia of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected poison gas attack, declaring that missiles "will be coming", but recovered at the close.

Both the London Metal Exchange (LME) and the CME Group said they were taking action to restrict aluminium brands of Rusal, one of the world's biggest producers, on their exchanges.

"There's a lot of panic and uncertainty. Buyers are scrambling to try to replace where they can, to plug the gap left by not having Russian-origin metal," said Robin Bhar, head of metals research at Societe Generale in London.

"This seems to be just the start (of rallying prices). Given this is a balanced if not tight market I don't see how you can easily replace that missing Russian origin material in the short term."

Three-month aluminium on the LME surged to a peak of $2,277.50 a tonne, the highest since Jan. 24, closing 2.2 percent higher at $2,250 per tonne.