Market and product
Aluminum Climbs Amid Tightening Supply, Improving Demand Outlook
Aluminum for delivery in three months advanced as much as 1.1 percent to $2,019 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange and traded at $2,017.75 at 3:05 p.m. in Hong Kong. The metal is up 12 percent this year and entered a bull market on July 22.
Chinese industrial companies reported a 17.9 percent gain in earning in June from a year earlier, the fastest pace since September, according to data released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics. Inventory tracked by the LME shrank for an 18th day on July 25 to 4.91 million tons, the lowest since September 2012, according to bourse data.
“The aluminum market is in very good shape now,” Tetsu Emori, a fund manager at Astmax Asset Management Inc. said by phone from Tokyo. China’s economy is improving and production cuts are easing the market’s oversupply, he said.
Lead on the LME rose as much as 1.6 percent to $2,303 a ton, heading for the highest close since February 2013.
Copper climbed 0.1 percent to $7,135 a ton, reversing an earlier decline. In New York, the futures contract for September gained 0.2 percent to $3.246 a pound, while in Shanghai metal for the same month fell 0.8 percent to close at 50,630 yuan ($8,183) a ton.
On the LME, zinc advanced and nickel fell while tin was little changed.
