Aluminum price hits 3-year high on strong trade data from China

The price for aluminum for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange has risen to its highest since June 2018, reaching $2,304 per ton. The growth comes as China trade data buoyed the outlook for demand.

The price for the metal settled at $2,293 per ton as of Wednesday.

China’s imports and exports continued their strong rebound in March, data released by customs showed. Exports grew by 30.6% in March compared to a year earlier. Imports also surged 38.1% last month from a year earlier, to $227.34 billion, well above expectations of 24.5% growth.

Experts say the figures suggest that the global economic rebound is helping spur demand in the Asian nation, which is the biggest base-metals consumer. They point out that demand for the metal is rising just as China’s push to cut carbon emissions spurs expectations that aluminum-supply expansions will be curbed.

According to Alastair Munro from Marex Spectron, speculation that aluminum output in China’s Xinjiang region could be restricted also saw open interest in aluminum contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange “expanding.”

Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann told Bloomberg that despite the fact that China was badly affected by the Covid pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, “the data do indicate that China still has a considerable appetite for commodities.”

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