Global aluminium short-term outlook January 2023

China’s abrupt U-turn on Covid restrictions and a slightly brighter near-term outlook for the European economy dominated metals market sentiment in January. The bearishness seen in the market in the final week of December quickly dissipated and giving way to a turnaround in sentiment as China added detail to its exit from lockdowns. Expectations of a recovery in economic activity and better demand growth drove the official LME cash price from a month low of US$2242/t on 4 January to US$2605/t on 25 January before pulling back slightly at the time of writing. At the same time, data from Europe suggested that the slowdown in economic activity was not as bad as had been initially feared.