The U.K. secondary aluminium market is seeking direction with industry players active mostly on a hand-to-mouth basis, market participants said. "There is very little confidence due to the uncertainty over the global economic outlook, and most players are unsure which way the market will move," one trader said. "People are buying scrap when they need it and are selling ingot when the sales potential is there, nothing more," he added. Prices of LM24 grade alloy are currently quoted as trading at around GBP950 a metric ton level, market players said, with LME aluminium alloy hovering just above the 1,200 dollars /ton, the equivalent to under GBP800/ton. "Margins are not being achieved at acceptable levels of profit; scrap supplies are still failing to keep pace with increasing production," one producer said. Certainly, a permanent shortfall, partly caused by export restrictions in Russia and the Ukraine, has prevailed in the European scrap market for some time, and scrap prices are therefore still too high in relation to alloy prices, players said.
NSTL
