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Note: Unjustified - Market confounded as LME aluminium prices breach $2,200 per tonne
Duty-paid premiums in Rotterdam hit $100 per tonne last week for the first time since May last year, propelled by the resurgence in the Italian market where consumers are panic buying ahead of the planned closure of Alcoa's two smelters there, market participants said.
Cash and three-month duty-paid ingot premiums rose to $90-100 per tonne on an in-warehouse Rotterdam basis on December 16 from $85-95. With no demand for unpaid, premiums held at $52-70.
"We're seeing good demand for duty paid, above $100. There is no demand for unpaid," one producer source said.
Premiums fob in Italy are still as high as $190-200 per tonne, with business confirmed at those levels.
With premiums at such heady levels, material could get diverted south from northern Europe.
"Italy's reaching a level when you'd replace with Rotterdam," a trader said.
Most southern European consumers are covered for material until the end of the year, they told MB, although some panic buying is...