Asia Pacific alumina price flat, likely to stay rangebound

摘要

The Asia Pacific alumina price continued at n$368.70/mt FOB Australia on Monday, and nmarket participants are now eyeing the lat-est Nalco 2011 term tender which is ndue to close on Friday. The 180,000-mt ntender, comprising of six 30,000-mt nlots to be lifted from Visakhapatnam nport between January to December next nyear, is Nalco’s third term sell tender nfor 2011. Nalco is expecting it to set-ntle at “close to 16.26%” of the LME naluminium futures, which was the level nobtained for its previous term tender nfor 210,000 mt sold to Alaska Metals nin October. Trafigura had taken out the nfirst contract for 270,000 mt at 15.83%. nNalco sources said the market was nstill competitive for cargoes, based on nthe recent response the company had nreceived for its 30,000-mt spot alumina ntender for end-November loading which nwas awarded at $377.77/mt FOB Vizag nto Glencore last week. “It (the spot ten-nder) was competitive, there were three nto four bids all around $375/mt,” one nNalco source said. “The term tender is nlikely to see between 15.51% to 16.49%, nmaybe closer to 16.26%,” he added. nThe lowest bid received for the recent nspot tender was between $350-360/mt, nthe Nalco source said. A Western indus-ntry source said the second highest bid nreceived for the Nalco spot tender was at n$375.95/mt, with the third at $375.89mt. Nalco sources declined to provide nfurther details on the bid figures. Market nsources said the Asia Pacific alumina nspot price was likely to be rangebound at n$365-370/mt in the near term, and may ntest marginally higher levels as the mar-nket remained relatively tight.