METALS-Shanghai aluminium hits 9-1/2-yr high on Chinese supply worries

HANOI, March 16 (Reuters) - Shanghai aluminium prices rose to their highest in more than 9-1/2 years on Tuesday, as supply concerns in top consumer China rose after an aluminium hub ordered power cuts and industrial production shutdowns.

The Chinese city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia, a major aluminium producing region, ordered the shutdowns as part of the nation's plan to reduce carbon emissions. nL1N2LD0SY

CRU analyst Wan Ling said this could translate to a 100,000-tonne annual aluminium output reduction.

The most-traded April aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SAFcv1 climbed as much as 2.6% to 17,980 yuan ($2,765.94) a tonne, a level unseen since August 2011.

The three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange CMAL3 advanced as much as 0.4% to $2,227 a tonne.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Aluminium inventories in LME warehouses MALSTX-TOTAL were hovering around their highest since March 2017, while stockpiles in ShFE warehouses AL-STX-SGH hit a high level unseen since April 2020 last week, latest data showed.

* LME copper CMCU3 fell 0.9% to $9,071 a tonne at 0239 GMT and nickel CMNI3 dropped 1.1% to $16,040 a tonne. The ShFE tin contract SSNcv1 declined 1.7% to 173,880 yuan a tonne and ShFE copper SCFcv1 was down 0.6% to 67,080 yuan a tonne.

* For the top stories in metals and other news, click TOP/MTL or MET/L

MARKETS NEWS

* Asian stocks were set to open higher after Wall Street's main indexes closed at record highs and investors awaited comments from the U.S. central bank's meeting later this week. MKTS/GLOB

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0745 France CPI (EU Norm) Final MM, YY Feb

1000 Germany ZEW Economic Sentiment March

1000 Germany ZEW Current Conditions March

1230 US Retail Sales MM Feb

1315 US Industrial Production MM Feb

U.S. Federal Open Market Committee starts two-day meeting

on interest rates

($1 = 6.5005 yuan)

(Reporting by Mai Nguyen; editing by Uttaresh.V)

((mai.nguyen@thomsonreuters.com; +842438259623; Reuters Messaging: mai.nguyen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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