MELBOURNE/BEIJING, Jan 24 (Reuters) - London aluminium
prices slipped on Thursday from near one-month highs hit in the
previous session on expectations that a period of tight supply
will soon come to an end.
Cancelled aluminium warrants, or metal earmarked for removal
from London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses, have surged in the
past 10 days to nearly 400,000 tonnes from 235,000 tonnes in the
middle of January, supporting prices.
However, the fundamentals for aluminium remain bearish, with
an obvious discrepancy between abundant supply and low
off-season demand in top consumer China, Everbright Futures
wrote in a note.
China saw its primary aluminium output hit an all-time
monthly high of over 3 million tonnes in December.
With most Chinese smelters still losing money at current
prices, a "small rebound" is needed but it is difficult to tell
when the inflection point will come, the brokerage said.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME ALUMINIUM: LME aluminium slipped 0.3 percent
to $1,903 a tonne by 0514 GMT, after a 1.4 percent gain in the
previous session.
* RUSAL: The Trump administration is expected to lift
sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg
Deripaska, including Rusal, as soon as Friday.
That could mean that aluminium that had previously
been caught by sanctions is available to market.
* SHFE: On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, aluminium
was up 0.7 percent at 13,575 yuan ($2,000.71) a tonne by the
end of the morning.
* OPEN INTEREST: Market open interest in ShFE aluminium
exceeded 750,000 lots on Wednesday, its highest since Nov. 15,
on short covering ahead of the week-long shutdown in China in
early February for Lunar New Year.
* CHINA GROWTH: China's economy can maintain sustainable
rates of growth despite global uncertainties, Vice President
Wang Qishan said on Wednesday, days after the world's
second-largest economy posted its weakest expansion in nearly
three decades.
* OTHER METALS: Copper edged down 0.2 percent in London
to $5,941.50 a tonne, while zinc lost 0.5
percent, while nickel and lead eked out gains of
around 0.1 percent each.
