Aluminium

Over its last 20 sessions ALUM has moved 1.36% on a typical day, making it a little calmer than most of the metals Kinzan tracks (their median is 1.61%).

That makes the last 24 hours a +1.4σ session for ALUM — the kind it has roughly once a week.

It sits near the top of its 24-hour range of 3,076.25–3,149.75, measured on hourly closes.

Most of the move came in the New York session (13:00–22:00 UTC), which accounted for about 80% of the day's price action.

Over the last 60 sessions of daily returns, it has moved most closely with BCH (+0.52, a moderate relationship).

Its last close is at the 1st percentile of its own last 83 sessions, and its 20-day volatility at the 57th.

Market read: Aluminium is hitting the top of its range, with New York session buyers providing the final push.

What it is

Aluminium is light, resists corrosion, conducts electricity well and can be recycled repeatedly without losing its properties, which puts it in aircraft and car bodies, window frames and cladding, drinks cans and foil, and overhead power lines. It is made in two stages: bauxite ore is refined into alumina, which is then smelted into metal by electrolysis. This page follows the front COMEX aluminium future, quoted in US dollars per metric tonne. The London Metal Exchange hosts the main global benchmark and far deeper trading; the COMEX contract is a smaller US-listed reference.

What drives it

Electricity is the defining cost. Smelting is so power-hungry that the metal is sometimes described as solid electricity, and smelters cluster where power is cheap, whether hydroelectric, coal-fired or subsidised. When energy prices spike, high-cost producers curtail output, as European smelters have done, so power prices matter to supply as much as mining does.

China produces more than half of the world’s primary aluminium, making its output policy the biggest swing factor. Beijing has capped domestic smelting capacity, limiting how far supply there can respond to demand. Consumption follows construction, packaging, transport and power grids, and lighter vehicles, electric ones included, add to it. Trade policy matters unusually much: tariffs and sanctions on major producers have reshaped flows, and the regional premium paid for physical metal in the United States can sit well above the global benchmark.

How it trades through the day

The COMEX contract trades on the CME electronic platform nearly around the clock on weekdays, but volume is thin and it tends to take its lead from other venues. The Asia block (22:00–07:00 UTC) overlaps daytime trading in Shanghai, where Chinese demand is priced; the London block (07:00–13:00 UTC) covers much of the LME’s activity; and the New York block (13:00–22:00 UTC) brings US data and most of the COMEX volume there is.

What it tends to move with

Aluminium tends to move with copper and the rest of the base-metals complex on the shared industrial cycle, and with the Chinese growth signals that also move the Hang Seng. Its dependence on power gives it an unusual link to energy prices, natural gas included where gas sets the cost of electricity. Like most dollar-priced commodities, it tends to strengthen when the US Dollar Index falls.