N.Hydro says $3000/t aluminiumToday's pop may be related to this:
N.Hydro says $3000/t aluminium no longer sems high
Thu Apr 3, 2008 4:09pm IST
OSLO, April 3 (Reuters) - The head of Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro (NHY.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday that everything pointed to aluminium prices staying high and that $3000 per tonne no longer seemed exceptional.
"Three thousand dollars per tonne was earlier seen as a very high price. In today's strained situation, that is probably not such a high price," Chief Executive Eivind Reiten told reporters.
Three-month aluminium futures on the LME MAL3 traded at $2,890 per tonne.
"China is driving much of the growth in aluminium. Without China, the picture would be different," Reiten said. "The other thing is that costs are rising. There is cost pressure (in aluminium) as in all other energy-intensive industries."
He said it was also hard to establish new production capacity due to difficulties related to infrastructure, the environment and access to energy and the key raw material alumina.
"All this points to a high price in the future," Reiten said.
(Reporting by Joergen Frich)