(Bloomberg) -- Aluminum fell from the highest close in six weeks as investors weigh a spike in London inventories following UK sanctions targeting Russian metals.

Aluminum rose last week along with other industrial metals following more steps from China to bolster its economy and signals that Federal Reserve rate cuts could be coming soon. 

Tuesday’s decline came after a 13% jump in aluminum stockpiles tracked by the London Metal Exchange — a sign that traders are offloading Russian inventories after the UK government last week announced sanctions prohibiting British individuals and entities from trading physical Russian metals. On Tuesday, there were further inflows into South Korea’s Gwangyang port, which is a popular storage point for Russian metal. 

“These stock deliveries (albeit lighter thus far than market rumour) provides some sort of a headwind,” Al Munro, an analyst at commodities brokerage Marex, said in an emailed note.

Even before the UK sanctions, some buyers and banks were shunning Russian metals on ethical grounds or because financing and logistics have become too complex. That’s led to growing volumes heading to China as well as LME warehouses.

LME aluminum fell about 1% to $2,263.50 a ton as of 4:52 p.m. local time. Other metals were higher, with copper climbing 1.3% and zinc adding 1.6%. 

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