Aluminum extends rally to highest since 2013 on supply deficit

Aluminum climbed in London to the highest in almost 18 months after a report showed global production trailing consumption.

The output shortfall in the first six months of 2014 was 393,000 metric tons, compared with a 1.057 million-ton surplus in all of 2013, the World Bureau of Metal Statistics said in a report today. Demand for zinc topped output by 191,000 tons, after a surplus of 116,000 tons for 2013. Shortfalls were also seen in copper, lead and tin.

“People are coming to accept the fact that the market is moving into a deficit” in aluminum, Tim Hayes, a Richmond, Virginia-based principal at Lawrence Capital Management, said in a telephone interview. “Those deficits are going to look even larger come next year and even the year after that, and so we’re getting a lot more positive sentiment.”

Aluminum for delivery in three months climbed 1.8 percent to settle at $2,076 a ton at 5:50 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange after touching $2,083.75, the highest since Feb. 22, 2013.