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| Copper Price |
Supply Constraints Push Copper to Record Edge
Copper prices climbed back to within half a cent of their record high on Tuesday. An unexpected outage at the Gresik smelter in Indonesia compounded severe supply constraints across global markets. Consequently, London benchmark prices remained firmly above $14,000 per tonne for an unprecedented run of sessions.
Aluminum Soars Amid Alumina Production Cuts
Aluminum jumped to a seven-week high after a major Brazilian alumina plant halved its production capacity. Norsk Hydro cut output at its Alunorte refinery because a key supplier flagged severe disruptions to natural gas availability. Furthermore, ongoing geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East continued to drain London Metal Exchange inventories to multi-decade lows.
ScrapInsight Commentary
The unexpected shutdown of the Gresik smelter and ongoing Middle East supply disruptions underscore extreme structural tightness in base metals.
Sustained physical scarcity will likely keep LME copper and aluminum prices elevated, reinforcing robust cyclical momentum across the recycling and raw materials sector.
