By Daphne Psaledakis, Polina Devitt and Paul Sandle
WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) -Washington and London on Friday prohibited metal-trading exchanges from accepting new aluminum, and nickel produced by Russia and barred the import of the metals to the U.S. and UK.
The action, aimed at disrupting Russian export revenue from the metals, comes as Washington has sought to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, which has killed or wounded tens of thousands and reduced cities to rubble.
Russia is a major producer of aluminum, copper and nickel. Russian major metals producers Rusal and Nornickel did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment, nor did the Russian embassy in Washington.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday’s action would prohibit the London Metal Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange from accepting new Russian production of aluminum, copper and nickel.
“Metal exchanges provide a central role in facilitating the trading of industrial metals around the globe,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Both the UK and U.S. measures will exempt the existing stock of Russian metal on these global exchanges so they can still be traded and withdrawn in an effort to minimize the risk to market stability, the UK said in a statement.
Available aluminum stocks in London Metal Exchange-registered warehouses were 91% of Russian origin in March, unchanged from the previous month, LME data showed on Wednesday.
The high share of Russian-origin metal in LME inventories has been a concern for some producers, which compete with Russia’s Rusal, and some Western consumers who have avoided Russian metal since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The share of Russian-origin copper stocks rose to 62% in March from 52% the previous month and the share of Russian nickel rose to 36% from 35% over the same period, the LME said.
