The benchmark Rotterdam duty-unpaid premium touched a fresh one-year high of $100-107 per tonne on Monday February 5, fuelled by a surging US Midwest premium.
The aluminium P1020A in-warehouse Rotterdam, duty-unpaid premium touched highs of $105 per tonne in February 2017. Participants short of material and some who want to ship metal to the Midwest, where the premium is at a four-year high of 11-11.75 cents per lb, have been pushing the European premium higher. The upward trend has been spurred by speculation over whether the US Section 232 investigation will lead to tariffs on all imported primary aluminium. Sources have estimated that anywhere from 20,000 tonnes to 90,000 tonnes has headed to the United States from Europe recently to take advantage of the higher...