Aluminium supply headaches intensify as Bahrain shipments stop, Qatar smelter to shut

By Eric Onstad and Tom Daly

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Aluminium Bahrain ALBH.BH, which runs one of the world's biggest smelters, warned customers on Wednesday it had halted shipments due to the widening Middle East conflict, exacerbating supply concerns after a Qatari smelter shutdown a day earlier.

Aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange jumped as much as 5.1% to $3,418 a ton after the news, their strongest since April 2022, and analysts said prices could go still higher since about 8% of world supply is produced in the region.

Goldman Sachs said on Monday prices could hit $3,600 a ton if production in the region was lost for a month.

SHIPPING HALTED IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ

Alba declared force majeure on Wednesday and informed affected customers of delays, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Shipping through the Strait between Iran and Oman, which carries around one-fifth of oil consumed globally, has ground to a near halt after vessels in the area were hit as Iran retaliated against U.S. and Israeli strikes.

"It's because what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz, we are not able to ship. So we're producing, but the metal is here in Alba," the spokesperson said.

"The force majeure... is not due to any disruption or damage to the smelter facility," the spokesperson added. "The team is working intensively on identifying alternative shipping solutions to minimise the impact."

Alba, whose smelter is the largest outside of top producer China, produced 1.62 million metric tons of aluminium in 2025, according to its website.

At Wednesday's peak, the price of the lightweight metal used in construction, transport and packaging has rallied 9% this week after the attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran over the weekend.

QATARI SMELTER TO SHUT

Investors were already on edge after news on Tuesday that Qatari smelter Qatalum began to shut down and shareholder Norsk Hydro NHY.OL issued a force majeure to customers.

Hydro said the shutdown of the 648,000 metric-ton-per-year smelter was expected to be completed by the end of March and that a full restart could take six-to-12 months.

More than 5 million metric tons of metal are shipped through the Hormuz Strait each year by smelters in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Huge amounts of bauxite and alumina travel the other way to feed the smelters.

European aluminium premiums , paid on top of LME prices for physical metal, have risen to $436 a ton for April EPDc2, the highest levels in 3-1/2 years, while U.S. premiums AUPc2 have jumped to a record high of $1.075 per lb.