LME Aluminum Premiums Data

Description

A near daily data set on the price of aluminum premiums (USD/MT) for LME in the U.S., Western Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. I like these data as illustrative of some of the shortsightedness of the aluminum tariffs that Donald Trump announced in March 2018. The tariffs had no discernible effect on manufacturing employment or earnings, but they created a supply shock that made aluminum more expensive.

Usage

aluminum_premiums

Format

A data frame with 2,812 observations on the following 3 variables.

date

a date

group

a factor with levels of East Asia, Southeast Asia, United States, and Western Europe

price

a numeric vector for the price of the LME aluminum premium

Details

LME aluminum premiums (monthly contracts going out to 15 months) work alongside LME aluminum contracts to allow market participants to hedge the all-in price and physically deliver or receive premium aluminum warrants in non-queued LME premium warehouses.