* LME/ShFE arb:
* GRAPHIC-2018 asset returns: (Adds closing prices)By Maytaal AngelLONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Aluminium hit its lowest innearly two weeks on Tuesday, extending declines from theprevious day after Washington gave U.S. companies more time tocomply with sanctions on Russian producer Rusal andhinted at further sanctions relief.
The U.S. Treasury Department gave Americans until Oct. 23,instead of June 5, to wind down business with Rusal and said itwould consider lifting sanctions if Russian tycoon OlegDeripaska ceded control of the company. "We should be getting used to the fact that Trump has a lotof bark and less bite. We've seen it with a lot of policies. Heintroduces them, markets react, then he backtracks or nothingcomes of it or they get delayed," said William Adams, head ofresearch at Fastmarkets.
"Aluminium is going to remain volatile depending on how thesanctions play out, but at the end of the day it will return tothe range either side of $2,200 until we see evidence ofstronger economic growth." Aluminium rallied to its highest since mid-2011 last weekon fears that the global market could face shortages because ofthe sanctions on Rusal, a company that last year accounted formore than 6 percent of global aluminium output.
* LME ALUMINIUM: Three-month aluminium on the London MetalExchange ended down 3 percent at $2,227 a tonne, havingtouched $2,200, its lowest since April 11. The price had droppedby 7.1 percent on Monday, in its biggest one-day decline ineight years.
* ALUMINIUM DEMAND: Consumption of aluminium in China, theworld's top user, will increase by 7-9 percent this year andnext, an executive at Aluminum Corp of China(Chalco) said.
* NICKEL PRICE: Nickel closed down 1.9 percent at$13,990 a tonne after a 3.8 percent fall on Monday. The metalhit a three-year high on April 19 on fears that sanctions mightbe extended to major producer Nornickel , a companylinked with both Rusal and Deripaska.
* NICKEL EXPORTS: The Philippines' top nickel ore producer,Nickel Asia Corp , said its 2018 export plans remainunchanged despite the government's intention to limit miningareas.
* COPPER CHILE: The union at BHP's Escondida copper mine inChile, the world's largest, said it had made little progress inreaching an early contract deal with management.
* NICKEL, COBALT: Cuba forecasts nickel plus cobalt sulfideproduction will exceed 50,000 tonnes this year even as pricesrise.
* OTHER METALS: Copper ended up 1 percent at $7,013a tonne, zinc ended down 0.5 percent at $3,212, lead ended down 0.4 percent at $2,310 and tin closedup 0.2 percent at $21,100.<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top base and precious metals analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Tom DalyEditing by David Goodman and Alexandra Hudson)