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Aluminium climbs to 11-week high up on Yunnan doubts, company technicals

Aluminium rates touched an 11week high up on Monday over concerns of a sluggish healing in production in China's Yunnan province and on the back of a strong technical outlook.

Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME). was up 0.8% at $2,327 a metric load at 1718 GMT after. touching $2,331, its highest because Jan. 3.

The technical outlook for aluminium is favorable after. breaking above the major moving averages, Robert Montefusco of. products brokerage Sucden Financial stated.

There are some drivers from Yunnan's production side. But. I won't say costs are getting carried away, he included.

Montefusco pointed out market issues about the pace of aluminium. smelters in drought-hit Yunnan province bring back 500,000 metric. tons of annual production, as dry weather condition continues to restrict. hydropower supply.

In general, base metals require from leading consumer China stays. unsure, he included, with the nation's purchasing managers'. index, due this Sunday, likely to shed more light. on manufacturing activity.

Copper is still carefully balanced. Looking at stocks and. production. Demand is not getting there yet, Montefusco stated.

Copper inventory in warehouses registered with the Shanghai. Futures Exchange (ShFE) fell a little recently, after the. strongest seasonal surge considering that 2020.

ShFE copper stocks jumped from simply 30,905 metric heaps at. the end of December to 285,090 loads on March 22. << CU-STX-SGH >

LME copper last ticked up 0.1% to $8,871.5 a load,. after acquiring 5.7% recently. That was the most significant weekly gain. for copper in over a year.

The discount rate for the money copper costs against the. benchmark three-month agreement struck $113 a metric heap earlier on. Monday, near a record high of $113.26 in early February. << CMCU0-3 >

The large discount, or contango, signals expectations of. ample supplies of copper on the LME, a feature of the market for. many months now.

For other metals, LME nickel decreased 1.5% to. $ 16,980, zinc was up 0.4% at $2,493.5, lead. dipped 0.1% to $2,035, and tin fell 0.5% to $27,600.

(source: Reuters)