LONDON (FT) - Aluminium prices hit their highest levels in a decade on Monday following news of a coup in Guinea, the world’s second-biggest producer of raw material bauxite.
The prices for the metal, used in beer cans, construction and cars, rose 1 per cent to hit $2,776 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, the highest level since May 2011.
Shares of aluminium producers in China and Europe also rose. Guinean soldiers said on Sunday they had overthrown President Alpha Condé in an apparent military coup, raising concerns about the supply of bauxite needed to make aluminium.
Guinea supplies about 25 per cent of the world’s bauxite, mostly to China and Russia. The raw material is refined to make alumina, the starting point for aluminium production.