BEIJING, Jan 29 (Reuters) - London aluminium prices rose on
Tuesday, rebounding from a 2.8 percent plunge in the previous
session, with investors turning their focus to inventories,
U.S.-China trade talks and a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting
beginning later in the day.
Monday's drop came after the United States lifted sanctions
on Russian producer Rusal, while the London Metal
Exchange (LME) said it would resume accepting all Rusal metal
into its warehouses.
"The already amply-supplied market should now be even
better supplied," Commerzbank said in a note. "We therefore see
little scope for rising aluminium prices, especially given that
there are also risks with respect to demand."
More metal will likely be available in the near future
because Rusal has been transporting volumes from its Siberian
smelters to Russian ports so it could be shipped quickly once
sanctions were lifted, the bank said.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME ALUMINIUM: Three-month LME aluminium had
climbed 0.4 percent to $1,874 a tonne by 0705 GMT. The
most-traded March aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures
Exchange (ShFE) closed down 1 percent at 13,410 yuan
($1,989.35) after hitting a one-week low of 13,385 yuan.
* RUSAL: Aluminium users around the world will pay less for
their material but U.S. tariffs on imports of the metal mean
limited gains for the consumers in the United States.
* STOCKS: Inventories of aluminium stand at 1.3 million
tonnes in LME-approved warehouses MAL-STOCKS, near their
lowest since May 2018. The lifting of a ban on placing certain
Rusal metal on warrant "has stoked fears that a flood of Russian
material will hit the warehouses," ANZ wrote in a note.
* OPEN INTEREST: Market open interest in Shanghai aluminium
hit 759,768 lots on Monday, the highest since Nov. 5, as short
positions increased.
* U.S.-CHINA: The United States on Monday announced criminal
charges against China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, escalating a
fight with the world's biggest telecommunications equipment
maker days before trade talks between Washington and Beijing.
China expressed serious concern over the charges.
* OTHER METALS: London copper prices edged up 0.3
percent to $6,017 a tonne, while ShFE copper ended down
0.1 percent at 47,580 yuan. Zinc was the worst performer
on the LME, falling 0.6 percent to $2,665 a tonne despite 17
straight daily drops in LME zinc stocks.
