Market is quiet, but prices remain firm

摘要

Buyers hold little hope that the market will soon correct or at least stabilise. While many analysts believe the bull market will continue, until the end of the summer at least, there are two bearish factors coming into play: Peru's Ilo smelter is now up and running, securing deliveries into Chile. As a result, the situation in Chile is less tight than it was late last year and very little spot tonnes are understood to be needed. The second factor is the Harjavalta smelter in Finland. It will have an additional output of 200,000t/y this year (total 1.1m tonnes/y), which will be injected in the local NW European market. This should help ease the tightness in this region.