LME aluminium price nosedives to US$3500.50/t after a week of unabated growth; SHFE price declines to US$3497/t

Three-month LME aluminium opened at US$3,740 per tonne on Tuesday, March 8, and hit a high of US$3,900 per tonne before closing at US$3,681 per tonne, a drop of US$59 per tonne or 1.58 per cent.

After an uninterrupted rise through the week nearing US$4000 per tonne, LME aluminium cash bid price and LME aluminium official settlement price plummeted by US$483.50 per tonne and US$484 per tonne to come in at US$3,500 per tonne and US$3,500.50 per tonne on Tuesday, March 8. 3-month bid price and 3-month offer price nosedived by US$452 per tonne to settle at US$3,514 per tonne and US$3,516 per tonne, respectively. December 23 bid price and December 23 offer price closed lower at US$3,245 per tonne and US$3,250 per tonne.

LME aluminium opening stock further decreased to 779350 tonnes, attributable to supply constraints due to sanctions on Russia. Live warrants for the same day remained restrained at 490100 tonnes, while Cancelled warrants declined to 289250 tonnes.

LME aluminium 3-month Asian Reference Price also recorded a decrease from US$4,000.43 per tonne to US$3,846.60 per tonne.

SHFE aluminium price

The benchmark price for SHFE has shrunk for the second day in a row by US$97 per tonne to stand at US$3,497 per tonne on Wednesday, March 9.

The most-traded SHFE 2204 aluminium closed down by 3.04 per cent or RMB 725 per tonne to RMB 23,105 per tonne, with open interest down 43,861 lots to 187,950 lots.

Overnight, the most-traded SHFE 2204 aluminium contract opened at RMB 21,200 per tonne, and hit a low of RMB 21,085 per tonne, but then moved to a modest high of RMB 22,270 per tonne before closing at RMB 21,885 per tonne, down by RMB 1,205 per tonne or 5.22 per cent.