SINGAPORE: London aluminium prices rose for a second session on Wednesday to trade near last session's one-month high, underpinned by signs of falling production in China.
Copper ticked higher after closing lower in the last two sessions, although concerns over trade dispute between Washington and Beijing kept a lid on prices of industrial metals.
"Aluminium bucked the trend...," ANZ said in a note. "Cancelled warrants (orders to withdraw from LME warehouses) rose 14 percent, the most since July. Supply-side issues appear to be tightening the market, despite the U.S. sanctions on Rusal being lifted."
ALUMINIUM: Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6 percent to $1,894 a tonne by 0706 GMT after climbing to its highest since Dec. 27 at $1,896.50 a tonne on Tuesday. Shanghai aluminium finished up 0.6 percent to 13,520 yuan ($1,993.16) per tonne.
SMELTING: Nearly three million tonnes of Chinese aluminium smelting capacity has closed and inventories are drawing on a counter-seasonal basis, Deutsche Bank metals strategist Nick Snowdon said.
CAPACITY: China's aluminium producers are set to cut at least another 800,000 tonnes per year of smelting capacity in coming months, an official at industry body China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said in December.
DISPUTE: But base metals prices are likely to be capped by U.S.-China trade dispute.
COPPER: LME copper added 0.7 percent to $5,975 a tonne, while the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 0.2 percent at 47,540 yuan a tonne.
POSITION: As much as U.S. President Donald Trump wants to boost markets through a trade pact with China, he will not soften his position that Beijing must make real structural reforms, including how it handles intellectual property, to reach a deal, advisers say.
TALKS: Offering to buy more American goods is unlikely by itself to overcome an issue that has bedevilled talks between the two countries. Those talks are set to continue when Chinese Vice Premier Liu He visits Washington at the end of January.
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