| NRGCA News |
|
Aluminum could maintain its drop
02/19/2007 |
Bloomberg News
Published: February 18, 2007
SHANGHAI: Aluminum prices may fall 11 percent in 2007 as global demand slows and output gains in China, said Minmetals StarFutures, a unit of the nation's largest metals trader.
Aluminum futures in London may average $2,300 a metric ton this year, from $2,595 in 2006, StarFutures' Pang Ying said from Shanghai in a telephone interview Feb. 14. The market may have a surplus of up to 300,000 tons, or 330,693 tons, she said.
Prices of the lightweight metal, used to make beverage cans, aircraft and automobile engines, have fallen 15 percent from at least a 19-year high in May as production growth outpaced demand. China, the world's biggest producer of aluminum, is forecasting domestic output may rise 14 percent this year.
"The fundamentals for aluminum are bearish because production is rising more than demand can keep up with," said Pang, 27, who has followed the aluminum industry for four years as a futures trader and an analyst.
Aluminum for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange fell $13, or 0.5 percent, to close at $2,815 a metric ton on Thursday. It gained 4.3 percent last week on speculation unrest in Guinea, the west African country that has a third of the world's bauxite, aluminum's key raw material, will disrupt supply. |
|
