Aluminum Holds Near 3-Year High

2026-02-20 11:00 By Andre Joaquim 1 min. read

Aluminum futures in the UK were near $3,100 per tonne in February, not too far from the three-year high of $3,270 on January 28th on the outlook of robust demand against low supply growth.

Output in China is expected to stall this year after the major producer hit its output cap of 45 million tons in 2025, and the government's campaign against expanding manufacturing capacity limited expectations of a possible raise to the cap.

However, attempts by Chinese smelters to build new alternative plants in Indonesia continued to face troubles amid higher energy costs and local regulations risks.

Meanwhile, high energy costs, equipment failure, and difficulty in sourcing bauxite, suspended key smelters in other countries including Iceland, Mozambique, and Australia.

In turn, the US President Trump administration pushed back against reports that tariffs on aluminum could be slashed from their current level of 50%.

The taxes drove the premium on US aluminum over UK benchmarks to a record.



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