Despite healthy economic fundamentals across metals markets, geopolitical uncertainty casts a shadow over Sucden Financial's altogether positive market outlook, the commodity broker's Quarterly Metals Report Briefing highlighted.
In its second-quarter trading ranges, the broker omitted forecasts for both aluminium and nickel following the recent storm of uncertainty surrounding the metals' price activity. Affirming "unprecedented times for aluminium," Sucden's chief executive officer, Michael Overlander, addressed the wider implications of the US Treasury Department's decision to sanction Russian aluminium producer UC Rusal. "The reason why the first round of sanctions caught people on the hop was much to do with the pre-sanction list released back in January. Everyone was lulled into a false sense of security," Overlander said. "In the environment of exchange-related matters, the general licensing aspect has knock-on effects across the rest of the market, throwing off the hedging landscape. The question now arises: Will those participants wanting to...