Aluminium falls as EGA reaffirms output recovery timeline
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Aluminium prices fell on Wednesday after major producer Emirates Global Aluminium reaffirmed it would resume full-scale production at its war-damaged smelter in the first quarter of 2027, easing worries about future supply deficits.
Benchmark three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was down 1.7% at $3,308 a metric ton in official open-outcry trading. The metal had been rising for seven previous sessions, hitting a seven-week high of $3,384.5 on Tuesday as worries over supply from the Gulf coincided with Norsk Hydro's announcement of reduced feedstock production at its Brazilian plant. Abu Dhabi-based EGA said its Al Taweelah smelter, which was damaged by an Iranian strike in March, was operating at 18% capacity. As EGA organised export routes outside the Strait of Hormuz since March, its total sales fell by only 32% to 939,000 tons in the first half of 2026. The physical premium European buyers pay above the LME price for primary aluminium — which covers freight, taxes and handling costs — has eased to $487 a ton from a May peak of $621, indicating that worries about the Gulf supply have gradually eased, although it is still up 36% since the war started. In other LME metals, copper rose 0.3% to $14,200 a ton in official activity, so far on track to close Wednesday at a fresh all-time high, as a temporary shutdown of a smelter in Indonesia and expectations of lower production in Chile added to worries about tight inventories after outflows to the U.S.
The premium of the LME cash copper contract over the benchmark
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