REFILE-METALS-Aluminium rallies, spotlight on Middle East turmoil

By Pratima Desai

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Aluminium prices rallied on Wednesday as focus switched to pricing in global supply losses from the Middle East conflict, after a brief selloff triggered by comments from U.S. President Donald Trump on the Iran war.

Benchmark aluminium CMAL3 on the London Metal Exchange was up 1% at $3,439 a metric ton at 1018 GMT. Earlier this week, it touched $3,544 a ton, the highest since April 2022.

The Middle East is home to around seven million metric tons of aluminium smelting capacity, or roughly 9% of the global total.

Trump on Monday predicted the conflict would end well before the initial four-week timeframe he had laid out.

But the war has effectively frozen shipments due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and threatened global supplies of aluminium used in transport, construction and packaging.

Last week, Aluminium Bahrain ALBH.BH or Alba, which runs one of the world's biggest smelters, declared force majeure warning customers of delays to shipments while Qatari smelter Qatalum started to shut down.

Reinforcing concerns about supplies are aluminium stocks in LME-approved warehouses MALSTX-TOTAL.

Cancelled warrants or metal earmarked for delivery stood at 177,325, or 40% of the total on Tuesday, compared with 9% on February 27, before the turmoil in the Middle East started.

Worries about tight aluminium supplies have created a premium or backwardation for the cash contract over the three-month forward on the LME CMAL3.

Industrial metals overall are under pressure from concerns about global economic growth as a result of soaring oil prices and a firmer dollar.

A rising U.S. currency makes dollar-priced metals more expensive for holders of other currencies, which could subdue demand. Clues to U.S. monetary policy and the dollar's prospects could come from inflation data due on Wednesday.

Copper CMCU3 was down 1.1% at $12,997 a ton, zinc CMZN3 slipped 0.6% to $3,326, lead CMPB3 retreated 0.2% to $1,940, tin CMSN3 dropped 1.3% to $49,800 and nickel CMNI3 ceded 0.4% to $17,425.