SMM Daily Review - 2012/2/28 Aluminum Market

SHANGHAI, Feb. 29 (SMM) – The most active SHFE three-month aluminum contract opened at RMB 16,255/mt and closed up RMB 20/mt or 0.12% at RMB 16,270/mt on Tuesday. SMM expects the contract to struggle near the RMB 16,250/mt mark lacking direction and in the meanwhile trying to gather upward momentum.

Spot aluminum traded between RMB 15,880-15,920/mt in Shanghai, at discounts of RMB 130-170/mt over the SHFE current-month aluminum price. Due to stagnating SHFE current-month aluminum price, gains in other base metals failed to boost buying interest for the light metal. In addition, tight cash flow at month’s end further dampened the already weak downstream demand. Discounts of spot aluminum in Wuxi over Shanghai aluminum spot narrowed further and even converted to slight discounts while the traded volume stayed light.