The Aluminum Monthly Metals Index (MMI) increased by 2.1% this month, as LME aluminum prices traded sideways and the US reinstated the Section 232 aluminum tariff on imports from the United Arab Emirates.
On Feb. 1, President Joe Biden reinstated the 10% aluminum tariff on imports from the United Arab Emirates.
Former President Donald Trump had lifted the aluminum tariff on his last day in office. The reinstated aluminum tariff went into effect Feb. 3.
The reinstatement suggests that it is unlikely the Biden administration will remove the aluminum tariffs imposed by the previous administration. However, as of today, no further decisions were announced on aluminum tariffs.
In addition, Biden’s “Buy American” plans could impact the U.S. domestic aluminum market. The plan will likely promote the manufacturing of essential components in construction, appliances and electronics in the US.
These measures are welcomed at the primary production level. However, not all end-product manufacturers are on board, as they claim these government interventions will artificially inflate the Midwest Premium.
The new administration also announced the delay of the effective date of the Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis (AIM) system that the U.S. Department of Commerce created. The Department of Commerce originally said the system would be available Jan. 25. However, it is delaying the launch until March 29. Licenses will not be required for covered aluminum imports until the new effective date.
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A Midwest-based trader told Construction & Demolition Recycling that demand for aluminum scrap remains high at secondary smelters that supply the automotive industry in the US
Chad Kripke, an executive vice president of Kripke Enterprise, a nonferrous scrap brokerage firm, confirmed that many sellers are relying on the spot market rather than signing contracts for 2021. This signals that it is a seller’s market.
This market environment is due to the reduced flows of scrap, which has caused spreads to tighten. As a result, secondary producers are opting to purchase scrap at what they might view as high prices rather than risking a lack of material.
This month, MetalMiner added additional U.S. aluminum prices to its Insights platform.
Besides the U.S. Midwest Premium Futures, the platform now includes prices for some of the most common forms of aluminum sheet and coil. It includes prices for: 1100 H14, 3003 H14, 5052 H32, 5083 H321, 6061 T6 and 6061 T651.
Price data goes back to Jan. 1, 2020.
The Chinese aluminum scrap price increased 0.4% month over month to $2,067/mt as of Feb. 1. Meanwhile, LME primary three-month aluminum increased 0.4% to $1,988/mt.
Korean commercial 1050 aluminum sheet remained flat at $3.30/kg. However, its European equivalent increased 8.3% to $2,948/mt.
Chinese aluminum billet and aluminum bar rose 0.4% to $2,389/mt and $2,489/mt, respectively.
Chinese primary cash aluminum dropped 2.4% to $2,365/mt. Meanwhile, its Indian counterpart declined 2.2% to $2.24/kg.
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A recent Reuters article doesn’t say so in as many words but certainly suggests conditions are fertile for warehouse operators to incentivize metal deliveries again and, in the process, queues could form at exit.
The Aluminum Monthly Metals Index (MMI) remained flat this month at 82, with the majority of prices in the index increasing mildly, offset by a few declining values.
The current index value remains near a three-year low.
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LME aluminum prices generally moved sideways in October but demonstrated strength late in the month, just as prices look set to drop through yet another support level of $1,700/mt. Prices hit as low as $1,713/mt during the month.
Source: MetalMiner analysis of London Metal Exchange (LME) and FastMarkets
That movement appears halted for now, due to supply disruptions and future supply concerns.
SHFE aluminum prices still appear constrained by a sideways pattern capped at around CNY 14,500/mt price band, with upward momentum looking weaker as the year has progressed.
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets
Given recent positive PMI readings and improvements in China’s large-cap FXI, for instance, we should see aluminum prices react — unless excess supply exists in the market, stopping increased price momentum and/or demand remains weak in aluminum-intensive areas.
According to Q3 reporting for the Aluminum Corp of China Ltd, or Chalco, as reported by Reuters, aluminum sales dropped by 13.8% for the quarter, compared to Q3 2018, with sales totaling 940,000 tons. Production dropped 10.4% during the same period (July-September) to 950,000 tons.
The company reported significant raw material, energy and operating cost increases of late, ranging from 17% to 21%, during the quarter.
Chalco reported an average sales price of CNY 13,924/mt for Q3 2019, down by 4.2% compared to Q3 2018, with profits down by 47.7% for the first nine months of 2019.
Recently, prices dropped below CNY 14,000/mt — typically a critical break-even point for producers in China — to CNY 13,800/mt.
During the most recent round of corporate financial reporting, a couple of high-profile producers noted higher energy costs hurt profitability and indicated the need to upgrade production methods to more energy-efficient processes. The aforementioned is especially true given the energy-intensive nature of aluminum production, which will necessitate major investment costs.
Rio Tinto commented that closure of its aluminum smelter in New Zealand could be possible due to high energy costs hurting profitability.
Additionally, the price increase could have occurred as a result of speculative activity in that it coincided with a recent uptick in press reports covering aluminum as the green solution in the beverage can industry.
Coca-Cola’s Dasani brand of water will move to aluminum cans from plastic, joining PepsiCo’s move for its Aquafina brand. Ball, the jar company, recently created an aluminum cup to compete with plastic (now in test markets). The company began construction of its first dedicated aluminum cup manufacturing facility, with production expected to ramp up in Q4 2020.
Additionally, total LME warehouse stocks trended down to historical lows earlier this year and remained there, at around 1 million tons. SHFE stocks declined more dramatically this year, now down to under 300,000 tons from around 700,000 tons at the start of the year.
The LME announced Nov. 1 it will proceed with a proposed package of measures aimed at the optimization of its warehouse network.
The new rules will require network warehouses to report stocks, even when stored outside of an LME location when that metal will be brought in at a later date.
Also, queue-based rent capping will increase to 80 days — from 50 days at present — over the course of nine months.
Aluminum prices found some momentum late in October, but what comes next remains unclear.
Buying organizations interested in tracking industrial metals prices with embedded forecasting should request a demo of the MetalMiner Insights platform.
Buying organizations seeking more insight into longer-term aluminum price trends may want to read MetalMiner’s Annual Metal Buying Outlook.
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This month, China aluminum scrap prices increased by 2.4% to $1,805/mt, while Chinese aluminum primary cash prices increased by 1% to $1,975/mt.
Meanwhile, Chinese aluminum billet and bar prices declined by 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively, to $2,041/mt and $2,136/mt.
Korean prices showed strength across the board this month.
Korean commercial 1050 sheet increased by 2.4% to $3.04/kilogram, 5052 coil premium over 1050 increased by 2.2% to 3.21/kilogram, and 3003 coil premium over 1050 increased by 2% to $3.08/kilogram.
The LME primary three-month price increased by 1.6% over the course of the month to $1,747/mt after a couple of months of decline.
European commercial 1050 sheet and 5083 plate both increased again this month, rising by 0.8% and 1.4%, respectively to $2,475/mt and $2,837/mt.
India’s primary cash price dropped by 5.1% to $1.86/kg.
While industrial metals started 2019 in an upward trend, the complex showed weakness as 2019 progressed.
In fact, all of the industrial metals hit down around current support levels — and lower at times — during the past few weeks.
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With industrial metals down across the board, are we moving into bear market territory? Or have we witnessed a temporary blip resulting from less certain macroeconomic conditions?
To examine the situation in more detail, let’s have a look at some of the key industrial metals and recent prices.
After a bullish start to the year, the DBB peaked on a short-term basis in early April, then trended back down once more.
Compared with July 2018’s larger drop, this one appears milder, but the short-term downward trend remains.
Source: MetalMiner analysis of NASDAQ.com data
The DBB tracks three key industrial metals: aluminum, copper and zinc. Let’s take a look at each metal to assess price performance using the LME 3-month futures price.
Looking at weekly trading volume, it looks like the downtrend in price is played out (based on recent positive trading volume). Also, both positive and negative weekly volumes looked weak recently, with a lack of momentum in prices.
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets.com
This indicates continued sideways movement on the LME aluminum price.
Given that the aluminum market moved largely sideways during the course of 2019, the Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) can also indicate where the market is at this time.
The MACD tracks the difference between two exponential smoothed moving averages (using the 12- and 26-day averages); it’s the black line in the graph below, which sits along the bottom edge below the price line. The red line, or signal line, uses the nine-day exponentially smoothed average of the MACD.
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets.com
When the values hold above zero, this indicates the market is overbought. When they are below zero, this indicates the market is oversold. If the lines continue to trend downward, then the downtrend is still in process.
By this indicator, the aluminum market looks oversold and a buy signal emerged recently when the longer-term line turned up after a couple of days of upward market momentum and edged past the signal line. The signal line followed a day later, indicating the downtrend lost steam.
Based on this analysis, aluminum prices may have already hit bottom and turned around; therefore, the aluminum market itself does not look bearish at present.
LME copper prices lately have showed clear weakness. However, they found support again recently in daily trading, stopping a further slide in price.
With negative trading volume still registering on a weekly basis, the price dynamic for copper still looks weak.
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets.com
Looking at volume on a weekly basis, we can see that it trended up again last week. Through the first few days of this week, volume registered as negative on the partial week’s data.
Copper prices still look weak.
Like the other industrial metals, LME zinc prices trended downward in April.
Looking at weekly volumes for zinc, the price action looks mixed. (Note that the last bar shows only partial data for the week in progress.)
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets.com
Given the clearer trend when looking at LME zinc prices, we can use the 4-9-18 day moving average analysis to assess the state of the current downtrend. The result of the analysis shows the downtrend remains in process as the moving averages queue in the expected order, with the 18-day average on top (blue line), followed by the nine-day (purple line), then the four-day average (red line).
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets.com
Therefore, in the case of LME zinc (using this method) the downward trend continues. The red line, however, the shortest average and therefore most sensitive, has recently shown signs of turning back up.
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets.com
Looking at a MACD analysis, based on the 12-, 26-, and nine-day periods, the downtrend continues with the signal line in red sitting above the MACD line in black, while both continue in a downward trend below the zero point of the MACD indicator bar.
Readings below zero on the indicator show bullishness in the sense that prices may turn around. However, in this case the lines continue moving in a downward trend, so we may not have seen the bottom of zinc prices just yet.
During recent weeks, the main industrial metals tracked by MetalMiner showed weakness. Will this be temporary or are we looking at a more cyclical movement into bear market territory?
While aluminum prices look relatively stable, copper and zinc prices appear weaker, with no clear signal given that the downturn has passed.
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Therefore, while it’s too soon to call a bear market, it’s also too soon to say we’ve avoided one.
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This morning in metals news, the LME aluminum price has tracked back down after spiking last Wednesday, U.S. steel import permit applications fell in September and a Chilean state-owned miner is in talks to sell copper to China’s Minmetals.
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The London aluminum price has come back down after surging last week, when news of Norsk Hydro’s decision to shut down its Alunorte alumina refinery sent prices rising.
However, after being granted a permit to use new technology related to waste disposal at the refinery, Alunorte is set to resume operation, Reuters reported, and the aluminum price has retraced to a one-week low.
MetalMiner’s Take: LME aluminum prices decreased, falling again to their previous levels.
Alumina supply concerns moved the LME aluminum price out of its price range. Despite the sharp downtrend, LME aluminum prices do not seem to be in a bear trend. Selling trading volume does not support the downtrend in prices, meaning that prices are just retracing.
LME aluminum prices seem less volatile than other base metals, but they react sharply to news of supply concerns.
U.S. steel imports have dropped 10.6% in the year to date, the Times of Northwest Indiana reported (citing American Iron and Steel Institute data).
According to the report, September steel import market share hit 21%.
Chilean state-owned miner Codelco is in talks to enter into a copper supply deal with China’s Minmetals, Reuters reported.
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According to the report, the miner is in talks to enter a three-year supply deal with the Chinese firm, providing 60,000 tons of copper per year.
Wondering why aluminum prices have pulled back from highs of $2,200 per metric ton on the LME?
After all the hype about environmentally driven smelter closures in China this year and the additional curtailments to be forced on the market in certain provinces during the winter heating seasons, most were expecting the run up in prices to hold steady (at least during the winter period).
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In practice, although prices have made impressive gains from lows of $1,700 per ton earlier this year to five-year highs of over $2,200 per metric ton, it was largely on the pretext of constrained primary metal supply that it is beginning to become apparent is not happening.
According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (admittedly not the most reliable of sources) Reuters reports China’s aluminum smelters churned out 2.35 million metric tons of the metal in November, down 7.8% from 2.55 million tons in October and down 16.8% from a year ago.
In reality, while headline smelter capacity has been closed, new planned capacity has continued to quietly come onstream.
The London Metal Exchange aluminum price has risen steadily since this time last year and seemed at times like it may hit, if not breach, $2,000 per metric ton. Many consumers are asking how much further does it have to go? will it break that psychologically important barrier anytime soon? and if it does, how much further does it have to go?
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To understand this, we should consider what has caused price strength in recent months and that you will not be surprised to hear is easy to list, but harder to judge to what extent each factor has had an impact.
First, there are general commodity category price drivers, nearly all base metals have shown price strength over the period as industrial demand has remained positive and surplus supply markets have either tightened or gone into outright deficit. In the case of aluminum, there are several indicators suggesting the market deficit has increased over the last 12 months. Physical delivery premiums have increased not just in Asia, but in the U.S. with the Midwest premium currently trading just below ten cents per pound on the CME Group exchange, up from six cents per pound in the third quarter of last year. Japanese physical delivery premiums have been agreed at $128 per metric ton for the second quarter up from $95 per ton for the first quarter.
Meanwhile, LME inventory continues to decline with almost 400,000 mt electing to leave the system in February alone. Now it must be said that not all this metal is destined for consumption, as Andy Home in a recent Reuters article points out, the majority of metal leaving the LME system is almost certainly heading to off-market lower cost storage options. Read more
LME aluminum has found its support level.
Three-month Aluminum on the London Metal Exchange hit a new 13-month high this week, retaking the $1,700 level.
Three-month LME Aluminum hits 13-month high. Source: MetalMiner analysis of Fastmarkets data.
Recently we talked about the decline in aluminum exports this year. China exported 390,000 metric tons of unwrought aluminum in July, down 9.3% from July of last year. Chinese aluminum exports have fallen around 7% for the first seven months of 2016. Lower aluminum exports are supporting aluminum prices this year.
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Despite the fall in exports, the U.S. is considering asking for a reclassification of aluminum products to stop a flood of “fake semi-finished” aluminum products entering the global market. The reason is that Chinese aluminum exporters seem to be avoiding export duties while simultaneously qualifying for Chinese export subsidies for semi-finished products, for products that are being shipped specifically for remelting as unwrought. Read more
We’ve reported on Alcoa‘s production declines affecting aluminum prices and physical premiums, but there is even more to look at for those investing in firms like Alcoa, Rio Tinto Group and Norsk Hydro – notably, the London Metal Exchange‘s aluminum inventories.
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In short, LME’s aluminum inventory has been steadily dropping after reaching about 5.5 million metric tons in mid 2013. According to Market Realist, that drop was compounded in October with aluminum inventory at LME warehouses down 138,900 mt.
As of this week, LME warehouses recorded a total aluminum inventory of 3.03 mmt, according to the news source, of which nearly 36% is from canceled warrants. All the metal that enters LME warehouses is on warrant and these warrants are canceled when the bearer requests the physical delivery of the metal.
From late October through Nov. 2, canceled warrants grew by more than 23% despite total aluminum inventory with LME warehouses decreasing over the same period.
Leon Westgate, an analyst at ICBC Standard Bank, told Bloomberg: “(The increase in canceled warrants is) unlikely to be related to real demand. With the large tonnages like that, it’s likely to be finance-related. It’s likely to be material moving to an ex-LME location.”
Alcoa’s cuts and the situation with LME warehouses could impact midwest aluminum premiums, but they won’t likely have a long-term impact on aluminum prices due in part to a strong dollar and the significant amount of aluminum leaving China.
How will base metals fare for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016? You can find a more in-depth aluminum price forecast and outlook in our brand new Monthly Metal Buying Outlook report. For a short- and long-term buying strategy with specific price thresholds:
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