SMM Daily Review - 2012/7/3 Aluminum Market

SHANGHAI, Jul. 4 (SMM) – The most active SHFE aluminum contract for October delivery started at RMB 15,465/mt and closed up a slight RMB 40/mt or 0.26% at RMB 15,500/mt on Tuesday, after a struggle within RMB 15,390-15,525/mt. Considerable support has been found at the 10-day moving average. Positions added 910 lots to 117,232 lots while transacted contracts increased 16,088 lots to 66,340 lots. The light metal’s slight rebound was made possible partly by gains in other base metals prices which had forced out more shorts. However, the aluminum market has yet to gather more confidence given weak global manufacturing data and tight liquidity.

Spot aluminum was sold mainly at RMB 15,540-15,570/mt in Shanghai, with low-iron aluminum trading at RMB 15,650-15,660/mt. While SHFE aluminum prices stagnated, spot trading has been light amid high selling interest but extremely weak buying, dragging down the mainstream trading band. Stable prices were seen only for SHFE-approved aluminum ingots in short supply.