It comes after the Baise, in China's Guangxi Province, was locked down on February 7, 2022, due to an Omicron outbreak.

 

"Baise has aluminium operating capacity (January-end) of 1.7Mtpa and there is potentially 0.5Mtpa capacity cut, which accounts for 1% of total China aluminium operating capacity," UBS said.

 

"Baise has alumina operating capacity of 7.5Mtpa and there are two producers, Huayin (34%-owned by Chalco) and Xinfa, who have confirmed production cut of 1.2/1Mtpa.The production cut is about 3% of total China alumina operating capacity."

 

Nickel was the biggest loser among the metals, falling 3.3% to $23,023/t. Gold futures rose to a two-week high of $1827.20 an ounce.