Chinese earthquake rockets aluminium at the LME

The aluminium price moved on the upside the previous week at the LME aided by the uncertainty over the impact the earthquake in China had on certain local smelters. Furthermore a weaker dollar and some short-covering at the end of the week led the light metal over the $3,000/mt mark.

According to Chinese sources Aba Aluminium with installed capacity of around 120,000tpy seems the most affected, as it is located very near to the epicentre of the quake. Latest reports are that production has been completely halted with no time-table yet for any restart. The Guangyuan Qimingxing smelter, with capacity of around 110,000tpy, has confirmed it suffered some damage, affecting around 5% of its pots. Rumors of a second Chinese smelter going down since Monday's earthquake emerged at the end of the week but no further details are known.

The primary aluminium price ended at $2,903/mt on Monday (12/05), edging higher to $2,946/mt on Tuesday's session. Wednesday saw the light metal retreating to $2,926/mt, while on Thursday ali rocketed to $2,996/mt. The primary aluminium price extended its gains on Friday (16/05), reaching $3,029/mt.

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