Price of aluminum almost continuously below 2,000 Dollars per tonne

by David Fleschen

The climate on the financial markets has recently deteriorated noticeably, with the US S & P 500 stock index falling to its lowest level since early April on Friday. This also influences economically sensitive metals, as the German institute Commerzbank Research reports.
Since October, the price of aluminum has been almost continuously below $ 2,000 per tonne. Although the high production costs provide support, there are currently many stress factors. For example, the US Treasury Department extended its license to do business with Rusal, one of the world's largest aluminum producers, on Friday, January 21, 2019 for the fifth time. This should ensure a continued high availability of aluminum in the world market. Regardless, the US Trade Commission sees Chinese exports of aluminum alloys as a burden on American producers, which is why the punitive tariffs on these products remain. Therefore, the Chinese exporters must look for new sales channels. So far, however, the US punitive tariffs have not been able to curb China's aluminum exports. Rather, they rose to their second highest level of 536,000 tonnes in November. As a result, exports of aluminum and aluminum products have increased by more than 20% to 5.28 million tonnes since the beginning of the year. Part of it is certainly due to the weaker yuan and destocking. SHFE aluminum inventories have fallen by nearly 280 thousand tons or 28% since the high in April.
 
Source: Commerzbank Research, photo: fotoalia
 

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