LME aluminium price drifts lower by US$181.5/t to US$3217.50/t; SHFE price steps up by US$14/t

LME aluminium opened at US$3,315 per tonne on Tuesday and closed at US$3,299 per tonne, down US$16 per tonne or 0.48%.

As supply was interrupted by the increased Russia-Ukraine conflict, aluminium prices had reached a new high at around US$4,000 per tonne in early March. However, going by the recent graph, there had been a sudden dip in prices owing to the prolepsis of stock release in the market. On Tuesday, March 15, both LME aluminium cash bid price and LME aluminium official settlement price witnessed a sharp decline of US$181.5 per tonne to close at US$3,216.50 per tonne and US$3,217.50 per tonne. 3-month bid price and 3-month offer price further declined by US$158 per tonne or 4.63% and US$157 per tonne or 4.60% to score at US$3,252 per tonne and US$3,254 per tonne. For the same day, December 23 bid price and December 23 offer price recorded a plunge of US$112 per tonne to total at US$3,093 per tonne and US$3,098 per tonne.

LME aluminium opening stock recorded at 742200 tonnes. Live warrants and Cancelled warrants further moved down to come in at 474650 tonnes and 267550 tonnes.

On Tuesday, March 15, LME aluminium 3-month Asian Reference Price plummeted by US$139.33 or 4.02% to register at US$3,320.17 per tonne.

SHFE aluminium price         

The benchmark aluminium price for SHFE on Wednesday, March 16, moved up by US$14 per tonne or 0.41% to peg at US$3,415 per tonne.

The most-traded SHFE 2204 aluminium closed down 1.44% or RMB 315 per tonne to RMB 21,590 per tonne, with open interest down 10,016 lots to 140,295 lots.

Overnight, the most-traded SHFE 2204 aluminium contract opened at RMB 21,235 per tonne, with the highest and lowest prices at RMB 21,710 per tonne and RMB 21,235 per tonne before closing at RMB 21,700 per tonne, down RMB 25 per tonne or 0.12%.