The U.S. sanctions against United Co. Rusal are setting off explosions across global metals markets.

Consumers, manufacturers and traders are scrambling to secure supply cut off by Rusal, the largest aluminum producer outside China. Aluminum reached a six-year high and nickel jumped the most since 2009. Alumina, a raw material needed to make aluminum, notched a fresh record.

"It really is unprecedented in terms of the turmoil it’s unleashed,” Robin Bhar, a metals analyst at Societe Generale SA, said by phone from London. “It’s amazing to watch.”

The U.S. sanctions are threatening to upend the global supply chain for aluminum, which is used in planes made by Boeing Co. and Ford Motor Co.’s F-150 pickup truck. Rusal produces about 6 percent of the world’s aluminum and operates mines, smelters and refineries across the world from Guinea to Ireland, Russia to Jamaica.

ALUMINUM

The metal climbed as much as 5.2 per cent to US$2,530 a metric ton, the highest since August 2011. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said prices could spike to US$3,000 in the near term.

Rio Tinto Group flagged it may need to cut production in the wake of sanctions. The company is working with customers to minimize disruption and remains in the process of declaring force majeure on some contracts, it said Wednesday.

ALUMINA 

Alumina is being particularly affected because Rusal is a key producer, with plants in places such as Ireland and Jamaica. Before the sanctions, supply was already constrained by output cuts at Norsk Hydro ASA’s Alunorte refinery in Brazil, the world’s biggest.

A 30,000-ton cargo of alumina, the crushed ore feedstock which smelters use to produce aluminum, fetched $800 a ton, according to CRU Group analyst Anthony Everiss. The previous record for CRU’s index of alumina prices was US$610 a ton in 2006.

NICKEL

Nickel surged as traders speculated that other Russian companies could be targeted by U.S. sanctions. Bullish sentiment was also boosted after production slumped 18 per cent at Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd. forecast higher demand for electric vehicles.

Prices jumped as much as 11 per cent to US$15,730 a ton.