UK secondary aluminium prices continued to rise on Wednesday August 26, with a regional supply squeeze pushing LM24 ingot prices above the levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
The UK secondary aluminium market has suffered considerably as a result of Covid-19 and its associated industrial lockdown.
All related UK industry effectively ground to a halt in March when carmakers, the main consumer of secondary material, shut their factories. Prices plummeted with demand coming to a complete halt practically overnight.
Fastmarkets assessed the price of
aluminium scrap, LM24 pressure diecasting ingot, delivered consumer UK, at ?1,000-1,050 ($1,312-1,378) per tonne on March 25, after the first major European car manufacturers announced partial closures.
But the weekly assessment of that price was most recently up by 19.5% to ?1,200-1,250 per tonne on August 26, surpassing the ?1,190-1,230 per tonne pre-shutdown level.
A severe supply squeeze in the UK's somewhat...