The United States has reportedly ruled out Russian aluminium and nickel from its new set of sanctions, which made several roundups in the media since early February 2024.
According to the latest report on Monday, February 26, the United States declared sanctions on more than 500 people and entities in Russia and eliminated base metals, including aluminium and nickel.
In early February, there was speculation that the United States might impose a fresh wave of sanctions on Russian aluminium and nickel, following which the prices of the two metals rose, assuming limited supply would occur in the wake of sanctions.
Source: Bloomberg
Subsequently, the aluminium prices fell as the United States announced the exclusion of aluminium and nickel from its fresh sanctions list. On Friday, February 23, the LME aluminium benchmark price dropped 1 per cent to US$2,157 per tonne, which further decreased on Monday by 0.77% to US$2,140.50 per tonne.
Russia is one of the leading producers of aluminium ex-China and contributes 6 per cent to global production. Market experts had predicted minor impacts on the worldwide aluminium market due to the US sanctions against Russian aluminium.
However, the fact is that Russian aluminium, which typically makes up 10 per cent of all US imports, is not a primary seller to the US. Last year, the United States imported around 200,000 tonnes of aluminium goods from Russia, which accounted for about 3 per cent of all US imports and a negligible portion of about 95 million tonnes of global market.
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