At historic highs aluminum, rally for palladium and nickel

The price of aluminum climbed to a new all-time high on Wednesday, with nickel also hovering high for more than 10 years and palladium will rally as the Russian-Ukrainian crisis sparked fears of supply chain problems, boosting commodity prices in general.

More specifically, three-month aluminum on the London Stock Exchange jumped to a record high of $ 3,597 a tonne before falling to $ 3,573 and closing with gains of 2.7%.

The price of aluminum has jumped 37% in the last two and a half months, initially due to the weakening of production as a result of the energy crisis, while after the Russian invasion of Ukraine it has recorded historical highs, as fears of shortages in supply chains arise due to hard Western sanctions against Russia, which is one of the world’s largest producers.

In addition, sanctions by Western countries have prompted the world’s three largest container companies to suspend shipments to and from Russia at a time when aluminum reserves are running low.

“We are now seeing the secondary effects of sanctions,” Daniel Briesemann of Commerzbank told Bloomberg. “Supply chain issues will worsen, and supply problems are now expected,” he added.

Briesemann said he was in the middle of an upward revision of his metals forecast, adding that he would not be surprised to see aluminum reach $ 4,000.

Aluminum stocks in LME MALSTX-TOTAL registered warehouses fell in the last 12 months to 809,750 tonnes from almost 2 million tonnes in March last year.

Meanwhile, gains of 3.3% to $ 25,925 per tonne rose the price of nickel, which is the highest level since May 2011, also due to Russia.

Russia produces about 6% of the world’s aluminum and accounts for about 7% of the world’s nickel supplies.

Strong gains of 3.4%, to $ 3,871.50 a ton, were also recorded by zinc, with its price moving to the highest level since last October.

Rally hit the palladium on Wednesday, with the June contract jumping 5% and closing at $ 2,664.90 an ounce, as Russia accounts for 40% of world metal production.

Significant gains of 1.5% were also recorded in the May contract for copper, which closed at $ 4,666 a pound, while platinum for April delivery strengthened by 1.5% and closed at $ 1.068 an ounce.

On the other hand, lead lost 0.1% to $ 2,406.50 per ton, while tin recorded a similar decline to $ 45,760 per ton.

In precious metals, gold fell to a 13-month high on Wednesday, with the April contract falling by $ 21.50 or 1.1% and closing at $ 1,922.30 an ounce, while silver also lost, with May contract loses 35 cents or 1.4% and ends the day at $ 25.19 an ounce.