The three-month aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange settled at a three-year low at the close of trading on Monday February 3, below the $1,700 per tonne support level against a 16-month high in turnover, while lead's price decline over the day was the starkest in the base-metals complex.
Aluminium's outright price on the LME closed at $1,686.50 per tonne on Monday afternoon, its lowest level since December 29, 2016. Turnover was high at just under 25,000 lots exchanged by the close, the most since October 3, 2018.Yet despite a record dip in the price for the light metal, some 15,825 tonnes of primary aluminium was removed from LME-registered warehouses in Asia, while forward spreads continued to support both spot business and the retention of material.Aluminium's benchmark cash/three-month spread was recently seen in a $26 per tonne contango, widening from a $13.50 per tonne contango in the morning.The light metal's price decline comes against key improvements in manufacturing data, however, with both the United States'...