The Platts Australian alumina daily assessment firmed $1/mt on Thursday to $255.50/mt FOB, with bid-ask levels lifted by a bullish trend in global aluminum prices.
Aluminum has been trading at eight- and six-month highs on the Shanghai Futures and London Metals exchanges, giving smelters a certain confidence to restock alumina.
In recent days, sellers guidance was seen at around $257-$258/mt FOB Australia. Buyers appear to be waiting in the wings, inquiring after tons but not clamoring to commit immediately.
Market participants may be awaiting the outcome of Nalco's sell tender for a 30,000-mt parcel scheduled to load between May 18 and 22 from India's Visakhapatnam port. The deadline for bids is late Friday.
Following revelations that no one beat Glencore's credit bid for the assets of its bankrupt subsidiary Sherwin Alumina in a Wednesday court-supervised auction, a source thought it was increasingly probable that Glencore may continue to keep online the 1.65 million mt/year refinery in Texas.
Platts assessed the Handysize freight rate at $8.80/mt on Wednesday for a 30,000 mt shipment in June from Western Australia to Lianyungang. Thursday's freight assessment had not been finalized at the time of this report.
The Platts China alumina daily assessment for Shanxi province has climbed Yuan 30/mt ($4.63) in the last week and Yuan 70/mt in the past month to Yuan 1,980/mt ex-works in cash on Thursday.
