BEIJING, April 27 (Reuters) - London aluminium prices
recovered from early losses to trade higher for a third day on
Friday, as investors bet that U.S. sanctions would remain in
place on Russian producer Rusal, keeping supply tight.
The metal has lost about 7.5 percent so far this week,
having fallen sharply on Monday and Tuesday after the United
States gave American customers of Rusal more time to comply with
the sanctions, first announced on April 6.
This has left aluminium on course for its biggest weekly
drop since August 2011, although it is still up 13.9 percent in
April on the back of Rusal concerns, which would be its best
month since September 2010.
"Heightened concerns about long-term supply disruptions due
to ongoing U.S. sanctions" have taken aluminium prices back up
again, ANZ wrote in a note.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME ALUMINUM: Three-month aluminium on the London Metal
Exchange climbed 0.3 percent to $2,281 a tonne by 0432
GMT, having fallen by as much as 0.5 percent in early trade. It
closed up 1.3 percent on Thursday.
* SHFE ALUMINIUM: The most-traded June aluminium contract on
the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 0.5 percent to
14,480 yuan ($2,285.68) a tonne by the mid-session interval. It
is down 3.7 percent this week but up 4.8 percent for the month.
* RUSAL: Rusal's head of sales Steve Hodgson is
leaving the company, a source familiar with the matter said on
Thursday.
* COLUMN: U.S. sanctions on Rusal shatter aluminium's supply
chain: Andy Home.
* COPPER: Copper was trading down 0.4 percent at
$6,939 a tonne on a firm dollar, which makes metals expensive
for holders of other currencies. Shanghai copper was
down 0.3 percent to 51,560 yuan a tonne.
* COPPER: Chile's Escondida, the world's largest copper
mine, said on Thursday that early contract talks with its
workers' union ended without an agreement, setting the stage for
legally scheduled negotiations to begin in June.
* HOLIDAY: The Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) will be
closed on Monday and Tuesday for the Labour Day holiday.
