Center Valley, Pennsylvania 11/07/2016 - The CME Group's aluminium MW US Transaction Premium (AUP) contract trended lower for another week as high import levels and soft summer demand have given the market a pessimistic slant.
The July AUP contract settled on Friday at 7.055 cents per pound and August through December 2016 closed at 6.9 cents. August and September were down 1.4 percent week-on-week, while October through December were down 3.5 percent. Every month in 2017 ended at 7.2 cents.
AUP saw 1,928 lots or 48,200 tonnes traded last week, a 15.6 percent increase from the previous week. Open interest was up 2.1 percent to an all-time record of 30,074 lots or 751,850 tonnes.
Premiums in the US have come under downward pressure in recent months due to a flood of import from Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Canada, according to a FastMarkets analysis of US Geological Survey (USGS) data.
Crude aluminium and alloy imports in January-April totalled 1.37 million tonnes, up 19 percent year-on-year, the USGS said.
Last week, FastMarkets' US Midwest spot aluminium premium slid to a fresh five-year low of 6.9-7.25 cents per pound.