SHANGHAI, Mar. 14 (SMM) -- A 9 magnitude earthquake and a 10-metre tsunami devastated Japan on Friday and shut down ports, power plants and refineries, and the US dollar index weakened rapidly to below 77 during the Europe trading hours, and finally closed at 76.718, down 0.519 or 0.67% compared with the previous trading day.

Rising inflationary pressures in China, the unrest in Middle East, and the Japanese earthquake heavily dampened investor confidence, and LME aluminum prices opened significantly lower at USD 2,519/mt as a result. Later, slipping US dollar index and expectations of stronger aluminum consumption in post-disaster reconstruction in Japan helped boost investor confidence, pushing up LME aluminum prices to reverse some losses, and finally LME aluminum prices closed at USD 2,545/mt, down USD 40/mt compared with the previous trading day, or down 1.55%. Total positions increased by 5,352 lots to 719,829 lots.

Today, SHFE aluminum prices opened slightly lower at RMB 16,650/mt negatively affected by falling LME aluminum prices, but later climbed rapidly to RMB 16,700/mt, and SMM predicts SHFE aluminum prices will test the pressure at the 5-day moving average today.                   

Copyright © SMM. All Rights Reserved

None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use in any forms or means, without the prior written consent of SMM. For reproduction issue, please contact us by email: service.en@smm.cn