Share of Russian primary aluminium in LME warehouses increases significantly

According to data from the LME, the share of Russian primary aluminium in its warehouses increased from 52% to 68% in May. This reinforces the suspicion that the metal from Russia is being avoided by many companies. The LME tries to refute this by pointing out that it would continue to see outflows of Russian aluminium. Among the customers is likely to be China, whose own production has recently come to a standstill due to electricity rationing. However, the figures speak for themselves: the increase is due to net inflows of Russian metal and significant outflows of non-Russian aluminium.

Here, stocks have almost halved since the end of April, whereas Russian stocks have risen by around 3%. On the one hand, this indicates an increase in demand for aluminium in May, which certainly also led to outflows of Russian metal; on the other hand, however, companies demanded a far greater proportion of non-Russian metal, which certainly indicates a boycott of Russian aluminium, even if not a complete one.

Source: Commerzbank Research, Photo: Fotolia