LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) – Aluminium edged higher after four straight days of losses on Wednesday, but remained down 18 percent from last week’s peak as concerns eased over the impact of U.S. sanctions on Russian producer United Company Rusal . Prices of the metal, used in products from food cans to aeroplane parts, soared after the sanctions were announced, but fell sharply on Monday as the United States gave U.S. customers of Rusal more time to comply. “If the sanctions had been placed on Rusal in full as seemed likely last week, it would have been very disruptive for global supply chains,” Capital Economics analyst Caroline Bain said. “There could have been a shortfall of aluminium in the world (excluding) China.” “Now that the conditions of the sanctions have been eased and there is more time for the world to adapt to not using Russian metal, …prices have come off again.” * LME ALUMINIUM: Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was 0.6 percent higher at $2,240 a tonne in official midday trading. That is still down by nearly a fifth from the seven-year peak of $2,718 it hit on Thursday. * INVENTORIES: Headline stocks aluminium stocks in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell 5,850 tonnes, exchange data showed on Wednesday. On-warrant inventories – those not earmarked for delivery and available to the market – rose 3,350 tonnes after five straight days of declines.* ALUMINIUM TECHNICALS: LME aluminium may test support at $2,152 a tonne, a break below which could cause a loss to the next support at $2,078, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said in a report. * RUSSIA: Russia’s En+ Group, owned by sanctions-hit businessman Oleg Deripaska, said its chief executive officer and its chief financial officer resigned on Tuesday, with replacements appointed to both posts. * ALNORTE: Norsk Hydro ASA has halted alumina output at two of seven production lines at its Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil, its CEO said on Wednesday. * FINANCIAL MARKETS: The dollar index bounced to its highest since mid-January on the back of a rally in U.S. Treasury yields. European shares fell 1 percent. * NICKEL: Nickel was untraded in official rings, but was last bid up 1.1 percent at $14,140 a tonne, higher for the first time in five days. It fell sharply from its April 19 peak of $16,690, a three-year high, as fears of sanctions spreading eased. * COPPER PRICES: Bellwether industrial metal copper was down 0.2 percent at $7,000 a tonne in official trading. * OTHER METALS: LME zinc was down 1.2 percent at $3,174 a tonne in official midday rings, while tin was up 0.2 percent at $21,150. Lead, untraded in official rings, was last bid 0.8 percent higher at $2,328 a tonne.