Aluminium touches three-week high, supply back in focus

SINGAPORE: Aluminium prices rose on Thursday, buoyed by continued supply tightness and a slight improvement in economic risk sentiment, which also boosted other industrial metals.

Benchmark three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.3% at $3,293.5 a metric ton by 0300 GMT.

Earlier, it touched $3,306.50, its highest since August 13.

The most-traded aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1.08% to 24,320 yuan a ton.

“Aluminium is being supported by a combination of physical destocking, expectations of a seasonal improvement in Chinese demand and relatively constrained supply growth,” said Rupankar RM, head of market research and data intelligence at AL Circle.

Despite hopes for returning supply from the big producers in the Middle East, analysts expect the market to remain in deficit this year, and LME stocks of the light metal, widely used in manufacturing, consumer goods and automobiles, remain close to a 36-year low.

Elsewhere, copper and zinc, which led Wednesday’s industrial metals losses on cooling supply concerns and a macroeconomic risk-off, had uneven gains.

LME copper was up 0.14% while it gained 0.34% on the SHFE.

LME zinc added 0.36% while the SHFE price nudged down 0.04%.

The key LME cash-to-three-month copper spread remained in backwardation on Wednesday, signaling tight availability but tightened to $87.56 a ton, its narrowest since August 21.

The US dollar index fell 0.13% on Thursday, providing support for the wider base metals complex.

A weaker dollar makes greenback-denominated commodities cheaper for buyers using other currencies.

Meanwhile, bond and stock markets rallied, and expectations of a September US interest rate hike softened to 62% from 67% on Monday, according to the CME’s Fedwatch tool.

Higher rates threaten to dampen demand for growth-dependent commodities by weighing on economic activity.

Among LME metals, lead was steady, nickel was little changed, up only 0.04%, and tin gained 0.69%. On the SHFE, lead lost 0.37%, nickel rose 1.65% and tin added 0.26%.