METALS-Aluminium heads for weekly gains amid Middle East supply fears

March 6 (Reuters) - Aluminium is set to end the week higher on Friday, as war in the Middle East threatened to cut off shipments from the region that produced 8% of the world's supply last year.

The most-active aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SAFcv1 ended the week up 3.59%, despite a 1.77% decline on Friday to close daytime trading at 24,715 yuan ($3,583.44) a metric ton.

London Metal Exchange's benchmark three-month aluminium CMAL3 added 0.68% to $3,318.50 a ton as of 0730 GMT, poised to add more than 5% for the week.

All eyes are on the Middle East, as disruptions started to materialise following force majeures at Norsk Hydro's NHY.OL Qatalum and Aluminium Bahrain ALBH.BH.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar =USD strengthened, on track to post a more than 1.4% weekly gain amid the war. A stronger dollar weighs on commodities denominated by the greenback by making them less affordable for investors using other currencies.

Oil prices LCOc1 spiked, stoking inflation worries and prompting investors to lower expectations for U.S. rate cuts.

Elsewhere, SHFE's on-warrant aluminium stocks WSAF-TOTAL-D have been building after the war broke out over the weekend, totalling 329,627 tons on Friday, up 13.94% from a week ago.

LME aluminium inventories MAL-STOCKS, however, fell to the lowest since July last year.

Copper, meanwhile, is poised to post a weekly loss.

The Shanghai most-active copper SCFcv1 ticked 0.28% lower to 101,050 yuan a ton, down nearly 2% for the week.

The London benchmark copper CMCU3 rose 0.39% to $12,951 a ton, on track to end the week down near 3%.

Copper is under pressure from a rapid gain in exchange stock levels.

"LME copper has been trading at only a narrow premium to Comex, reversing last year's structure that encouraged metal to flow into U.S. warehouses. As these pricing signals normalise, metal is increasingly being redirected back into global exchange stocks," analysts at ING Economics said in a note.

Copper stocks at LME warehouses MCUSTX-TOTAL increased by more than 20,000 tons, totalling 282,200 tons on Wednesday, according to the latest data from the exchange.

Among other SHFE base metals, zinc SZNcv1 declined 1.56%, lead SPBcv1 dipped 0.27%, nickel SNIcv1 dropped 0.45%, and tin SSNcv1 shed 1.70%.

On the LME, zinc CMZN3 added 0.82%, lead CMPB3 rose 0.36%, nickel CMNI3 increased 0.68% and tin CMSN3 was unchanged.

($1 = 6.8970 Chinese yuan renminbi)