METALS-Aluminium jumps to highest in nearly four years as Alba declares force majeure

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Aluminium prices hit their highest in nearly four years on Wednesday after Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) stopped shipments, deepening worries about the impact of the Middle East conflict on supplies of the metal used in construction, transport and packaging.

Other industrial metals recovered from recent weakness on better-than-expected private factory data from top metals consumer China.

Benchmark three-month aluminium CMAL3 on the London Metal Exchange jumped as much as 5.1% to $3,418 a metric ton, its strongest since April 2022, and was up 2.6% at $3,335 a ton by 1700 GMT.

Alba, which operates the world's biggest aluminium smelter outside of China, declared force majeure on Wednesday, warning some customers of delays because it could not ship through the Strait of Hormuz.

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 and analysts say Iranian drone attacks could disrupt the waterway for months.

The Gulf Cooperation Council countries supplied 8% of the world's aluminium last year.

LME copper CMCU3 rose 0.9% to $13,073 a ton, having shed 3% over the past two sessions on worries that the Mideast conflict will undermine economic growth and metals demand.

China's factory data was mixed, with the official purchasing managers' index tracking large state-owned manufacturers coming in slightly weaker.

But the metals market focused on a second survey of smaller, private producers that topped analysts' forecasts, with new order volumes rising for the ninth successive month.

"The PMIs were good, we're going in the right direction, with positive growth again and good orders. People are going long again on copper," said Robert Montefusco at broker Sucden Financial.

"But we've got to keep an eye on what's happening in the Middle East because we've been having some very large swings this week."

Among other metals, LME zinc CMZN3 gained 1.7% to $3,326, lead CMPB3 rose 1.5% to $1,964, nickel CMNI3 advanced 2.6% to $17,565 and tin CMSN3 jumped 5.1% to $51,325.

($1 = 6.9161 Chinese yuan renminbi)