LIVE FUTURES REPORT 24/12: LME aluminium on-warrant stocks fall below 1mln tonnes on 270kt cancellation

Aluminium was in the spotlight again during London Metal Exchange morning trading on Tuesday December 24, with 270,525 tonnes freshly canceled at LME sheds.

Over 111,000 tonnes canceled today were in Port Klang, Malaysia with other cancellations in Johor, Gwangyang and Singapore.

The large cancellation today comes on top of 107,125 tonnes canceled on Monday.

The two days of cancellations means on-warrant aluminium stocks have now dropped below 1 million tonnes for the first time since November 21.

Aluminium’s three-month price was most recently trading at $1,813.50 per tonne, up slightly from $1,804 per tonne at the 5pm close yesterday. 

The stock movement sparked a surge in trading for the aluminium contract – under 2,000 lots had traded by 8:50 am London time, and now 2,951 tonnes have traded as of 9:10 am. But volume still remains low compared with regular trading days.

The rest of the complex was mostly little changed in quiet market conditions ahead of the holidays.

Under 2,000 lots have traded on all other base metals contracts, apart from copper which had seen slightly higher volume of 3,188 lots by 9am London time.

“Today will most likely be a replay of yesterday’s dull market where even a 100k,000-tonne move in aluminium warehouse stocks [yesterday] was almost completely ignored,” Malcolm Freeman, Kingdom Futures said in his morning note.

Copper prices edged up $25 to $6,215 per tonne, while zinc prices continued their decline after 2% drop yesterday. The three-month zinc price was down $18 to $2,273 per tonne.

Nickel was the worst performer so far, dropping $95 per tonne, but remained firmly above the $14,000 per tonne support level.

Other highlights

  • The dollar index was little changed throughout the day, up 0.07% to 97.73
  • The LME Ring will close at the usual time of 5pm London time today – not earlier as in previous years. LMESelect will continue to operate until 7pm for base metals contracts.
  • The LME will be closed on December 25 and December 26.