METALS-US tariff uncertainty keeps aluminium under pressure

Updates prices

By Polina Devitt

LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Aluminium prices fell for a third consecutive day on Thursday as markets continued to assess the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from March 12.

Three-month aluminium CMAL3 on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.5% at $2,608 a metric ton by 1742 GMT, while copper CMCU3 added 0.6% to $9,506.

The United States is dependent on aluminium imports from Canada, much of which is produced in Quebec. The province's Premier Francois Legault on Wednesday said Canada should consider export tariffs on products such as aluminium "where they really need us".

Reflecting concern about tight nearby supply in the LME system, the premium for LME aluminium cash over the three-month contract CMAL0-3 reached $13.4 per ton on Thursday, its highest since April.

Copper has so far not been directly affected by tariff decisions, although Trump said in late January he would impose measures on the metal. The premium for U.S. Comex copper futures HGc2, HGc4 over the LME contract hit a record high of more than $1,000 per ton on Thursday.

This week's announcements of the 25% steel and aluminium tariffs extended Trump's previous 2018 Section 232 tariffs aimed at protecting domestic producers on national security grounds.

"Implicitly, the same mechanism could not be used to apply tariffs to other commodities in short order, as it would first require a related investigation by the Department of Commerce," Marcus Garvey, head of commodities strategy at Macquarie, said.

"This suggests recent volatility in the CME-LME copper spread ... is likely to have been excessive, albeit prices remain vulnerable to either blanket tariffs or country specific tariffs that would impact a large portion of U.S. imports," he added.

Last week, Trump delayed a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada until March.

LME zinc CMZN3 fell 0.8% to $2,839.50 a ton, while lead CMPB3 rose 0.9% to $1,988 and nickel CMNI3 lost 0.1% to $15,405. Tin CMSN3 was up 1.1% at $31,940 after hitting $32,065, its highest since November 6.

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