Shanghai aluminium near 10-year high on Chinese supply fear

HANOI: Shanghai aluminium rose to a near 10-year high on Wednesday while London prices also advanced amid speculation top producer China will limit output to meet its green targets.

The most-traded May aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose as much as 2.7% to 18,045 yuan ($2,759.47) a tonne, its highest since August 2011, before retreating to trade up 1.2% at 17,790 yuan a tonne at 0526 GMT.

Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.4% to $2,303 a tonne, having hit $2,313.50 a tonne, its highest since June 2018, earlier in the session.

Traders said there were market talks that China's Xinjiang region will limit output of aluminium, an energy intensive industry, as the country strives to curb pollution.

"Aluminium was supported by fears of further supply constraints in China. Recent curbs on energy intensive industry has seen the expansion of aluminium capacity in China curbed," said ANZ in a note.

However, a Xinjiang metals association official said it was not true that the region was implementing the same curbs as Inner Mongolia.

Combined aluminium inventories in LME and ShFE warehouses have fallen 4.5% since a near-three-year high level hit on March 19, but current stockpiles of 2.23 million tonnes were still 43% higher than the beginning of the year.

FUNDAMENTALS

Russian metals producer Nornickel will boost output of nickel products at its Harjavalta plant in Finland, betting on an expanding market for electric vehicle battery materials.

LME nickel fell 0.1% to $16,145 a tonne while lead fell 0.2% to $1,983.50 a tonne. ShFE copper advanced 0.3% to 66,080 yuan a tonne and nickel was down 0.3% to 121,530 yuan a tonne.