First Trades of CRU - Settled LME Alumina Contract

LONDON, Oct. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The London Metal Exchange's Alumina contract has commenced trading. This is settled on a basket of CRU's alumina price, the CRU-API, and Fastmarkets' FOB Australia alumina index. Multiple lots of 50 t were traded on Thursday 17 October 2019: at $284/ t for November 2019 and $294 /t on the January 2020 contract.

CRU's Alumina Price Index (API, Australia FOB) on the same day edged lower to $277.5 /t, with liquidity recently provided by alumina spot cargos sold to China. The latest physical market transactions involved two 30,000 tonnes Australian cargos sold at $302.00/t and $303/t China CIF respectively. IMO 2020 has resulted in the ocean freight cost between Western Australia and China increasing to $25.00/t for December 2019. This is up nearly $2.00/t compared to November deliveries.

As the physical market's leading, transaction-only price benchmark, the CRU-API is used widely in the settlement of physical contracts and accurately reflects true market fundamentals, incorporating verified physical trades from across the supply chain. As such, its use in the settlement of the LME Alumina futures contract is another natural application for the CRU-API. The now active LME alumina contract provides an ideal price risk management tool for physical market participants.

Read the full story: https://www.crugroup.com/about-cru/news/2019/first-trades-of-cru-settled-lme-alumina-contract/ 

Read more about CRU: http://bit.ly/About_CRU

About CRU

CRU offers unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertilizer industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events.

Since our foundation by Robert Perlman in 1969, we have consistently invested in primary research and robust methodologies, and developed expert teams in key locations worldwide, including in hard-to-reach markets such as China.

CRU employs over 280 experts and has more than 11 offices around the world, in Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and Australia – our office in Beijing opened in 2004 and Singapore in 2018.

When facing critical business decisions, you can rely on our first-hand knowledge to give you a complete view of a commodity market. And you can engage with our experts directly, for the full picture and a personalised response.

CRU – big enough to deliver a high-quality service, small enough to care about all of our customers.

The CRU-API (Australia FOB alumina) is a transaction-only weekly price benchmark. Use of transaction data alone as data inputs to this price ensures that it accurately reflects the actual spot market with no risk of information from sentiment, errant opinion, speculative or even confirmed but ultimately unexecuted bids and offers entering the published price. For more detail on applicable methodology and definitions, please visit:
https://cruprod.blob.core.windows.net/media/2914/cru-prices-methodology-and-definitions-bauxite-alumina.pdf 

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