The Platts Australian alumina daily assessment slipped $1/mt Wednesday to $262.50/mt FOB, with bids pulled down by steep decreases in aluminum prices in the last week on the London Metal and Shanghai Futures exchanges. Additionally, prospective buyers said they were approached by a number of stockholders. With aluminum prices in decline, sellers may be a little keener to offload alumina compared with one or two weeks ago, when stockholders were mostly waiting on the sidelines.
Alumina buyers guidance was at $260-$261/mt FOB Australia, with offers last seen at $265/mt FOB Australia and $275/mt CIF Lianyungang/China main port.
Platts assessed the Handysize freight rate at $9.85/mt Wednesday for a 30,000-mt shipment in June, from Western Australia to Lianyungang.
The Platts China alumina daily assessment for Shanxi province was stable at Yuan 2,000/mt ($307) ex-works in cash. Australian material is about $20/mt or Yuan 133/mt above domestic tons from Shanxi province, in import parity terms.
India's Nalco is expected to issue a sell tender in coming days, offering 30,000-mt June shipment of alumina, to be settled FOB Visakhapatnam basis.
