Another said the first shipment was already on its way and that Nalco had sold the alumina for about $300 a tonne, well below the current price of around $400, because the Indian firm was keen to gain a foothold in China. The trader was reluctant to give a concrete estimate on the quantity but said it should be a large parcel.

China has been short of alumina since the July explosion at Kaiser Aluminium company's Gramercy plant in North America, which used to produce one million tonnes of alumina a year. On Monday, Macquarie Equities Ltd said the Beijing government had issued a quota for 4,00,000 tonnes of imports for the first two months of 2000 at a special import duty rate of six per cent, compared with the usual level of 18 per cent.

An industry source in Singapore said no progress had been made in talks between Chalco and Alcoa Inc on Chalco's request to double alumina supplies to 8,00,000 tonnes this year. Traders said Chinese imports of primary aluminium were likely to rise this year as its domestic smelters were forced to cut down on production because of the alumina shortage.

Nickel tight, zinc in demand
In other base metals markets, traders said nickel was getting tight on strong demand from stainless steel makers in Asia, including China and South Korea. Zinc also saw brisk business, though some consumers were shifting towards high grade (HG) metal from special high grade (SHG) in order to save costs following a recovery on the London Metal Exchange (LME) to well above $1,200 per tonne.

-- (Reuters)