London aluminum climbs as Rusal rally resumes; other base metals also rise

BEIJING — London aluminum prices rose by as much as 1.6% on Monday as a rally driven by supply concerns after the United States slapped sanctions on Russian producer United Company Rusal regained momentum.

The metal had closed down in the previous two sessions but was still up by 25% so far this month.

Most other base metals also rose but aluminum’s rise topped gains as the volatility that marked last week’s trading — when worries about the impact of Rusal sanctions roiled markets — looked to have eased.

“In general it seems that the markets and indeed its participants all coped with the ‘storm’ and now it is a case of letting the prices find a new level at which they are comfortable,” Malcolm Freeman, chief executive officer of Kingdom Futures, wrote in a note.

However, the possibility of Germany going into a recession may well see prices “testing the downside once again.”

Three- month aluminum on the London Metal Exchange ( LME) climbed by 1.5% to $2,506 a ton by 0526 GMT, after closing down 0.60% on Friday last week.

The most-traded June aluminum contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was flat at 15,025 yuan ($2,387.65) a ton by the mid-session interval.

Russian companies hit by US sanctions, including aluminum giant Rusal, have asked for 100 billion roubles ($1.6 billion) in liquidity support from the government, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying on Friday.

Chilean copper commission Cochilco forecast on Friday that Chile would produce 5.76 million tons of the red metal in 2018, up 4.3% from 2017, while estimating copper prices at $3.06 per pound this year.

With melting ice expanding access to the Arctic, investors from China to Canada are watching Greenland’s election for signs of the political will to get a flagging mining program on the island back on track.

Asian stocks dipped on Monday as investors braced for a bevy of earnings from the world’s largest corporations, while keeping a wary eye on US bond yields as they approach peaks that have triggered market spasms in the past. —