Poor physical aluminium market conditions have forced people to store excess metal, pushing total aluminium stocks on the London Metal Exchange to more than 1.6 million tonnes.
Aluminium stocks rose by 2.9% last week, up for a seventh consecutive week, with inventories now sitting at their highest level since April 2017.
Current on-warrant stock levels now stand at 1.6 million tonnes - 108% higher than on March 2 when 791,850 tonnes of aluminium were in LME sheds and not booked for delivery. This was prior to Covid-19 disruptions affecting the global aluminium market outside China.
"On-warrant stocks were regularly below one million tonnes earlier this year, so it is a big spike in a short amount of time. It highlights the lack of consumer interest," a trader said.
Over 71,000 tonnes were delivered in during the week to June 26, taking total LME aluminium stock levels to 1,652,025 tonnes, with the majority delivered into aluminium's most popular warehouse location, Port Klang, Malaysia.
But there were also deliveries into other areas of...