The price of aluminium exceeded $3,000 a tonne on Monday for the first time since July 22, 2008. The price for a tonne of aluminium to be shipped in three months has grown by 2.24pc to $3,035.50 on the London Metal Exchange, as of Monday. In mid-September, the price of the metal touched $3,000 a tonne, after China introduced restrictions on aluminium output. Aluminium prices have been growing for nine months in a row. This year, a fall was registered only in January. The price soared most by 9.64pc in February, with the smallest increase of 1.4pc recorded in July. In total, the aluminium price has risen 1.5 times since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, China’s state reserves authority on Saturday last released a total of 150,000 tonnes of aluminium, copper and zinc from the national reserves to alleviate the burden on businesses over rising costs of raw materials. The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration said it would step up the monitoring of commodity prices and organize follow-up releases of national reserves. Since the beginning of this year, bulk commodity prices have surged due to factors including the overseas spread of Covid-19 and the imbalance in supply and demand, causing pressure on medium and small firms. This is the fourth batch of releases to the market. China has previously released a total of 420,000 tonnes of copper, aluminium and zinc to maintain market order.