Aluminium premiums soar after Gulf smelter attacks
March 31 (Reuters) - Aluminium premiums in Europe and Japan have surged this week after Iranian attacks on smelters in the Gulf on Saturday intensified concerns over supply of the metal.
The European duty-paid aluminium premium for April delivery is up 16% EPDc2 since Friday at $594 a metric ton, the highest premium since June 2022. In Japan, the April premium PJMc2 has jumped to $300 a ton from $250 last week, the highest level in records going back to September 2017.
The European premium for April has jumped 57% this month, gaining fresh momentum after Emirates Global Aluminium and Aluminium Bahrain ALBH.BH reported strikes on their facilities at the weekend.
The premiums were already at one-year highs before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28, driven up by a smelter outage in Iceland, the closure of the Mozal plant in Mozambique and the EU's new carbon tax on aluminium imports.
In the U.S., the Midwest premium for April AUPc2, also paid on top of LME prices for physical aluminium, touched a record-equalling $1.12 per lb ($2,469 a ton) on Monday; EGA and Alba are among the U.S.'s biggest suppliers.
LME three-month aluminium rose as much as 4% on Tuesday to $3,536 a ton, within a whisker of a four-year high.
