London April 20 news, the London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminum prices fell for a second consecutive day on Friday, the rise caused by the United States sanctions RUSAL appears to be stagnant. Rusal is the second largest aluminum producer in the world.
Nickel prices also fell, due to concerns that the United States may expand the scope of the sanctions and the sanctions against Norilsk Nickel are lessened.
At 17:00 London time on April 20th (Beijing time April 21st 00:00), the LME indicator three-month aluminum closed down 0.6% at 2,469 US dollars per ton.
Today’s trading volume was the lowest since RUSAL was sanctioned on April 6.
Last year, more than 6% of global aluminum production was produced by UC RUSAL. Concerns about the shortage of supply will push aluminum prices to a seven-year high of USD 2,718 on Thursday.
Since April 6, aluminum prices have still risen by 23%.
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Some analysts said that LME aluminum prices have risen much faster than China’s aluminum prices, opening the possibility that China will begin exporting aluminum to fill the supply gap left by RUSAL.
ING analyst Oliver Nugent said: “China’s export of aluminum may be profitable for the first time. Investors hope, and feel that China can fill most of the aluminum supply vacancies.”
Shanghai Aluminum’s June contract rose only about 6% since RUSAL was sanctioned.
Technical analysts said that from a technical point of view, LME aluminum is expected to test support at the level of US$2,348, and a break below that level could cause aluminum to fall to the next support level of US$2,260.
Three-month nickel fell 1.6% to $14,830 a tonne, hitting a three-year high of $16,690 on Thursday, and it still rose more than 5% this week.
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Among other base metals, three-month copper closed up 0.1% at US$6,992 per ton.
Three-month zinc rose 0.3% to close at 3,232 yuan per ton.
Three-month lead rose 1.2% to close at 2,365 US dollars per ton.
Three-month tin rose 1.3% to $21,725 a tonne.