The regional tension also led to the closure of QatarEnergy’s major LNG plant, which resulted in an overall halt to Qatalum, a joint venture between Qatar’s state-owned aluminium producer and Norsk Hydro, which faced a temporary halt for an estimated timeframe of six to twelve months.
Owing to this, the LME aluminium three-month contract strengthened both the bid and offer, going up by 3.4 per cent, where the bid rose from USD 3,260 per tonne to USD 3,371 per tonne, reflecting a day-on-day increase of USD 111 per tonne. Similarly, the offer inched up from USD 3,260.5 per tonne to USD 3,372 per tonne, showing an increase of USD 111.5 per tonne.
