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Shanghai frenzy fuels alumina's record-breaking rally: Andy Home

Alumina costs have skyrocketed to record highs this week, compressing margins at the world's. aluminium smelters which convert the intermediate item into. metal.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) money cost, indexed. to Platts benchmark Australian alumina assessment, closed. Wednesday at $633.35 per metric ton, raising the ratio to the. aluminium price to practically 25%.

The alumina-aluminium ratio was just 15% at the start of. 2024, when alumina was priced at $350 per load.

A series of supply disturbances have driven the alumina price. higher this year. The trigger for the current rate jump was news. of export issues in Guinea, the major import source of bauxite. for China's alumina refineries.

The physical alumina market is undoubtedly tight however the. explosive nature of the rate action also signals a speculative. craze on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE).

SHANGHAI BOOM

Almost 25 million loads were negotiated on the ShFE alumina. contract on Wednesday, a record daily high and equivalent to. nearly a fifth of international yearly production.

Open interest has actually likewise skyrocketed to life-of-contract highs as. investors have bought into a gradually rising market.

The exchange changed both trading limits and margins on. Thursday, enforcing a portion point premium on speculative. positions relative to commercial hedge positions.

This is standard procedure for China's exchanges. in the face of speculative rises such as that presently washing. into the Shanghai alumina market.

This sort of futures rate volatility is a new phenomenon. for the alumina market.

Both the LME and its U.S. peer CME Group offer alumina. contracts but neither is liquid. The explosive development in the. Shanghai contract, by contrast, has actually changed the vibrant in between. paper and physical markets given that trading began in June last. year. This is the 2nd bout of turbulence on the Shanghai market. after a massive price spike in January, likewise due to issues. about Guinean bauxite supply.

ALL EYES ON GUINEA

The cost sensitivity to events in Guinea highlights how. dependent China's alumina refineries have ended up being on West African. bauxite.

China's bauxite mining sector has actually been hit by several waves. of ecological examinations, limiting domestic supply and. motivating more alumina refineries to look overseas for their. basic material.

Imports of Indonesian bauxite stopped early 2023 after the. Indonesian federal government banned exports in a drive to require its. miners downstream into refining and smelting.

Guinea has actually quickly become China's main bauxite provider. Imports doubled in between 2000 and 2023 to almost 100 million heaps. and were up by another 13% in the very first 8 months of this. year. The January alumina panic was down to a surge at an oil. terminal in the Guinean port of Conakry. This time around it's. news that a regional subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium has. had its bauxite exports suspended by customizeds.

Although hugely exaggerated, the cost response in Shanghai. is rational, provided the absence of alternative bauxite supply and. tighter conditions in the alumina market itself.

SUPPLY STRIKES

Alumina supply has taken multiple hits this year. U.S. manufacturer Alcoa revealed in January the irreversible. closure of its Kwinana refinery in Australia. The ramp-down was. set up to be completed by the third quarter. In May Rio Tinto declared force majeure on deliveries. from its refineries in Queensland due to limited gas capacity. levels. Century Aluminum's operations in Jamaica were briefly. interrupted by Cyclone Beryl in September and South32. has flagged concerns about its Australian operations due to. conditions on its operating licence needed by ecological. regulators.

On the other hand, Chinese demand for alumina has actually been growing. highly as the country's smelters have actually taken advantage of enhanced. power supply, particularly in the hydro-rich province of. Yunnan.

National aluminium output rose by 4.4% year-on-year in the. first eight months of 2024 with annualised run-rates increasing. by nearly 1.5 million lots since December.

That stated, China at a nationwide level does not appear to be. physically except alumina considering that it continues to export. significant amounts to Russia.

Undoubtedly, exports to Russia surged by 41% year-on-year to 1.0. million lots in January-April, turning China from net importer. to net exporter of the intermediate product.

FUTURE( S) INTERRUPTION

However physical accessibility is not the like exchange. schedule.

ShFE alumina stocks have actually come by over half considering that. June to 103,416 lots. The outcome is time-spread tightness with. the premium for cash relative to forward contracts flaring larger. this week.

Short-position holders' ability to deliver physical material. will depend upon how much alumina is located at ShFE's four. shipment points in the provinces of Shandong, Henan, Gansu and. Xinjiang.

Much also holds on how serious the hazard of disturbance to. Guinean bauxite deliveries is. The January scare quickly decreased. and there's no indication the latest event is the precursor. of a national change of policy around exports.

What has changed, however, is the response time to such. occasions.

Before the arrival of the Shanghai futures contract, spot. alumina was priced by physical freight transactions, which can be. scarce in a market dominated by annual supply. agreements.

Now a heading from Guinea can move the futures rate in. seconds, developing a detach between paper and physical. markets.

This added volatility is going to make the previously. tranquil alumina market a much more turbulent location.

It's likewise going to make smelter costs a lot more. unpredictable with a possible knock-on effect on the cost of. aluminium itself.

(source: Reuters)