The Dutch port town of Vlissingen stores 1.44 million tons of aluminum in London Metal Exchange warehouses, overtaking Detroit's inventory of 1.42 million tons, Bloomberg News reports.
Nic Brown, the head of commodity research at Natixis SA in London is quoted by Bloomberg News as saying Detroit and Vlissigen "have been going neck and neck for a while now. "
Vlissingen, also historically called Flushing, is a former fishing village in the southwestern corner of the Netherlands. The historic city is where ships for the Royal Dutch Navy are built. It is also a tourist destination because the 50,000 ships that pass through its port each year pass supposedly closer to shore than anywhere else in the world.
Detroit, of course, is where cars are built, and stored supplies of aluminum for those vehicles has climbed 21 percent in Detroit since last December, Bloomberg notes. Supplies in Vlissigen have more than doubled.
Both cities have a pent-up wait for the aluminum, and an analyst for Barclays Plc in London says it's in part because both cities have a high concentration of warehouse ownership.
In Detroit, Metro International Trade Services, owned by Goldman Sachs Group, owns 29 of 37 metal storage warehouses in the city. Pacorini Metals in Vlissigen has 40 of the 42 storage facilities.
Not enough metal is departing those high-concentrations of ownership, the analyst said, probably because much of it is tied to long-term financing deals. The London Metal Exchange has increased the minimum rate of metal companies deliver each day to try and cut down wait times in Detroit.
豫公网安备41010502003434号