Aluminium climbs as Rusal sanctions stoke supply fears

LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) – Aluminium rose back towards last week’s seven-year high on Monday, driven by concerns that U.S. sanctions on Russian producer UC Rusal could disrupt supply. The metal has rallied 25 percent so far this month and touched its highest since mid-2011 last week at $2,718 a tonne on fears the global aluminium market could face shortages as a result of the sanctions. Rusal accounted for more than 6 percent of global aluminium output last year. “We are obviously in a period of elevated uncertainty currently when it comes to reorganising the supply chain, given that both Europe and the United States were significant buyers of Russian aluminium,” Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke said. “Everybody is quite clear that these flows will dry up, and the question is where (new) supply will come from,” he said. “The economy is doing fine, which means there will be a tendency towards demand growth. It is not just about replacing what was there, but also trying to meet this growth.” Nickel fell 3 percent meanwhile, easing further from a three-year high of $16,690 a tonne seen on April 19, as fears of additional sanctions faded. * LME ALUMINIUM: Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was at $2,492.50 a tonne by 0930 GMT, up 1 percent. Earlier it touched a session high of $2,534.50 a tonne. * ALUMINIUM INVENTORIES: Aluminium stocks in London Metal Exchange-registered warehouses fell 10,525 tonnes to 1.385 million tonnes, exchange data showed on Monday. On-warrant inventories – those not earmarked for delivery – dropped 4,100 tonnes to 935,650 tonnes, their lowest since February. * RUSAL: Workers at one of Russia’s biggest aluminium smelters say their Siberian town is doomed unless Moscow mitigates U.S. sanctions against Rusal. Washington blacklisted the company and its billionaire major shareholder Oleg Deripaska for suspected meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and other alleged “malign activity”. * COPPER STOCKS: On-warrant copper inventories in LME-registered warehouses fell 20,225 tonnes to 286,675 tonnes, their lowest in a month, the exchange data showed. Copper prices were down 0.1 percent at $6,984.50 a tonne. * NICKEL PRICES: LME nickel was 3 percent lower at $14,390 a tonne. * NICKEL OUTPUT: The Philippines is planning to limit the amount of land that miners can develop at any one time to boost environmental rehabilitation, a move miners say may cut output of nickel ore in last year’s top supplier to China. * OTHER METALS: LME zinc was up 0.3 percent at $3,240.50 a tonne, while lead was 1.1 percent lower at $2,340 a tonne. Tin was down 0.7 percent at $21,575 a tonne.