SINGAPORE: London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium stocks rose to the most since November 2021 after a second big delivery into warehouses in Malaysia’s Port Klang in a matter of days.
The huge influx of aluminium into the LME in the past week is fuelling fears of a new round of trading games and a potential queue if that metal is in turn cancelled and buyers look to withdraw it from the exchange.
Exchange inventories rose by 131,075 tonnes, or 15%, to 1.03 million tonnes in data reported by the bourse yesterday. That follows an increase of over 500,000 tonnes last Friday.
Three-month futures edged up slightly on the day’s trading.
Elsewhere, copper prices continued to move higher, trading at over US$10,200 a tonne to its highest level since 2022, after a powerful rally fueled by forecasts of a growing global supply deficit.
Copper prices have defied typical indicators of soft demand, especially in China. That’s partly because investors see tight mine supply creating a shortfall of the metal as early as this year.
“Investors are pricing beyond near-term cyclical uncertainty and weakness in physical demand indicators,” Citigroup Inc analysts said in an emailed note Monday.
The bank sees copper climbing to US$10,500 a tonne in the near term amid a “looming tightening” of supply. — Bloomberg
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