Aluminium import prices in Asia for Talk and Zorba 95/2 lowered despite advancement in the three-month aluminium contract on LME in the prior week. Extrusion, A35 wheels, Tally, Tense, Taint/Tabor increased from a week ago on Friday.
The official three-month aluminium contract on LME rose by $73.5/mt to settle at $2,497.5/mt on Thursday from a week ago. The market witnessed sluggish demand with buyers pulling bids lower and traders reluctant to lower offers just yet. ADC 12 trades to Japan and China showed signs of recovery but secondary manufacturers said demand is still low.
The weekly Davis Index for Zorba 95/2 settled at $1,600/mt cfr India port, down by $4/mt from the prior week, while for Zorba 99/3, it settled at $1,572/mt cif China port, down by $71/mt. Exporters reported weak trades with China due to the stringent checks at Chinese ports. Exporters shared that the drop in Chinese demand is pressuring aluminium scrap prices. Participants hold the opinion that prices are likely to remain low for the next two months. Exporters supplying material to China reported that payments are delayed.
The weekly Davis Index for Talk also dropped by $120/mt to settle at $4,590/mt cfr India port from the prior week driven by the range-bound LME three-month copper. The three-month LME copper settled at $9,367/mt on Thursday, down by $53/mt from the prior week. Traders are offering to sell aluminium-copper radiators or Talk at 50pc of the three-month copper contract on LME while buyers are bidding it at 47-48pc of copper spot contract on LME.
The weekly Indexes for 6063 extrusions settled at $2,155/mt cfr India port, up by $192/mt while the index for A356 wheels settled at $2,185/mt cfr India port, up by $64/mt. Participants heard trades for extrusion 95/5 at $2,000/mt from $1,900/mt cfr India port the prior week while deals for clean extrusion were heard at $2,200-2,210/mt from $2,140/mt cfr India the prior week. Extrusion importers reported sustained demand, unlike other aluminium scrap grades. Additionally, the recent rise in the dollar against the rupee and the jump in LME three-month aluminium contract by $111/mt to $2,535/mt on June 30 from June 24 pushed prices higher.
The weekly Index for Taint/Tabor was up by $25/mt to settle at $1,710/mt cfr India port from the prior week and the index for Tense settled $1,670/mt cfr India port up by $1/mt. Participants stated that China has become inactive in the market, pressurizing prices to remain range-bound despite the gain in the three-month LME aluminium contract.
ADC 12 trades
The weekly Davis Index for ADC 12 cfr China settled unchanged $2,210/mt cfr China port from a week ago. The weekly Index for ADC 12 cfr Japan settled at $2,300/mt from the prior week, up by $60/mt