State-owned Nalco on Sunday said aluminium prices may recover soon from a low of $2,600 per tonne as the current declining trend in metal prices is not due to demand-supply mismatch.
"The correction is an impact of stronger dollar. It has got nothing to do with the market dynamics of demand-supply mismatch in the international market. In fact, prices of almost all metal — zinc, copper and silver among others — are now receding," Nalco's acting chairman B.L. Bagra told PTI.
"However, I believe the price of aluminium might recover soon from the current low of $2,600 a tonne and would reach to the level of $2,700 per tonne recorded in late April," he added.
Aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange (LME) are hovering around a little over $2,600 a tonne against $2,700 a tonne in April. The prices were around $2,500 per tonne on LME in March.
The fall prices in global markets forced the domestic major to cut down its rates by Rs 6,000 a tonne late last week.
Earlier, it had raised the rates by Rs 3,000 per tonne in the first week of the month on firm global prices. The price of aluminium was on the upswing as a result of the slight demand-supply mismatch of the metal in the wake of closing down of some smelters in China.
Global production and consumption of aluminium currently stands at 39-40 million tonnes per annum. A slight change in the supply side lead to a price push.
Nalco, the second-biggest producer of aluminium in the country, had also raised prices in January, but corrected them in the third week of the month itself as global price dipped.
It again in February raised the price by Rs 6,000 to around Rs 1.21 lakh a tonne, but reduced it by Rs 2,500 per tonne in March.