BEIJING: London aluminium prices rose on Tuesday, rebounding from a 2.8 percent plunge in the previous session, with investors' focus returning to inventories, U.S.-China trade talks and the upcoming U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.
Monday's drop came after the United States lifted sanctions on Russian aluminium producer Rusal, while the London Metal Exchange (LME) said it would also start accepting all Rusal metal into its warehouses again.
"The already amply supplied market should now be even better supplied," Commerzbank said in a note. "We therefore see little scope for rising aluminium prices, especially given that there are also risks with respect to demand."
More metal will likely be available in the near future because Rusal has been transporting volumes from its Siberian smelters to Russian ports so it could be shipped quickly once sanctions were lifted, the bank said.
FUNDAMENTALS
* ALUMINIUM: Three-month LME aluminium had climbed 0.3 percent to $1,872.50 a tonne by 0430 GMT. The most-traded March aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) was down 1 percent to 13,405 yuan ($1,986.37) at midday.
* RUSAL: Aluminium users around the world will pay less for their material but U.S. tariffs on imports of the metal mean limited gains for the consumers in the United States.
* STOCKS: Inventories of aluminium stand at 1.3 million tonnes in LME-approved warehouses <MAL-STOCKS>, near their lowest since May 2018. The lifting of a ban on placing certain Rusal metal on warrant "has stoked fears that a flood of Russian material will hit the warehouses," ANZ wrote in a note.
* U.S.-CHINA: The United States on Monday announced criminal
charges against China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, escalating a fight with the world's biggest telecommunications equipment maker days before trade talks between Washington and Beijing. China expressed serious concern over the charges.
* OTHER METALS: London copper prices edged up 0.1 percent to $6,009 a tonne, while ShFE copper was down 0.3 percent. Zinc was the worst performer on the LME, falling 0.6 percent to $2,664 a tonne.
* COLUMN: A record-breaking year for China's metals trade: Andy Home
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or
MARKETS NEWS
* Asian shares stumbled and the dollar hovered near two-week lows as prospects for a Sino-U.S. trade deal dimmed on the Huawei criminal charges.
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