TOCOM aluminium futures contract hits highs for 2 straight days

Aluminium futures contracts trading on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange hit record high prices for two straight days, the exchange said Tuesday. The most actively traded far forward contract expiring on June 2009 hit the high of Yen 367.4/kg ($3.47/kg) Tuesday, refreshing the record high on Monday at Yen 358.6/kg. The contract eased from the high to settle at Yen 361.3/kg, up Yen 3.5 from Monday's closing. TOCOM aluminium trade Tuesday was active, with a total contract turnover of 401 contract trades, which was roughly twice the June average of 222 contract trades. Although prices had hit record, turnover was short of it as according to TOCOM's record, there were 19,645 contract trades for aluminium futures on April 7, 1997. The TOCOM aluminium trading mostly mirrored the London Metal Exchange trading the previous day, industry sources said. The LME three-months aluminium contract had been trading high above $3,200/mt since Monday, and the high TOCOM aluminium prices are believed to reflect the heated market in Europe. TOCOM trades primary aluminium with over 99.70% purity and iron content of less than 0.2% and silicon less than 0.1%. Source: Platts