Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed during morning trading on Tuesday January 22, with aluminium futures leading gains on more than 37,000 tonnes freshly canceled while broad strength in the US dollar index fueled downward pressure.
Aluminium lead the complex with the most volumes traded over the morning at 4,616 lots as of 9:50am London time, while more than 50,000 tonnes of material has been booked for removal since January 18. Despite positive fundamentals, aluminium's three-month price has kept broadly range-bound below $1,900 per tonne throughout January, with continued stagnant price action due to uncertainty regarding the removal of US-imposed sanctions against Russian aluminium producer, UC Rusal. Comparatively, while copper's price action has held below $6,000 per tonne over January, both zinc and lead's price movement has been broadly positive, with lead now trading above $2,000 per tonne and zinc's three-month price nearing $2,600 per tonne. In zinc, a fresh cancelation of more than...