Shanghai aluminium rose over 1 percent on Friday to its highest in nearly six months, bolstered by lower supplies and improving demand. The most-traded May aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed as much as 1.5 percent to 11,715 yuan a tonne, its highest since September 30, 2015. The contract closed at 11,640 yuan, up 1.8 percent for the week.
"Aluminium supplies are not high and the stockpile is also lower than previous years. That is supporting prices," said Jackie Wang, a consultant at CRU in Beijing. "After the Lunar New Year, demand has also been improving." But Wang said there was not much upside to current prices as aluminium smelters were beginning to increase production. "They had curtailed production last year but are planning to restart now. There will not be a big increase in production until June or July," she said.
Trading on Friday across all industrial metals was quiet as the London Metal Exchange (LME) is shut for the Easter break on Friday and Monday. The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 0.3 percent at 37,750 yuan a tonne. It fell to a one-week low of 37,400 earlier in the session. The drop in Chinese copper prices follows the decline in benchmark copper on LME that fell to a one-week low on Thursday due to a stronger dollar. Some optimism over demand at top consumer China helped limit losses. The dollar was on track for a weekly gain of over 1 percent against a basket of currencies after a chorus of US Federal Reserve officials signalled more interest rate increases than the market had been pricing in.
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