Supply concerns pushed nickel and tin futures to new record highs on the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday, analysts said. Even benchmark copper, which has lagged other metals this year, notched up gains on a speculative-led surge in New York's COMEX copper futures and rises in other commodities.
Gold rallied to a seven-week high above $645 an ounce, while oil rose nearly 2 percent beyond $53 as cold weather in top consumer the United States raised demand for heating fuel.
Nickel ended open-outcry trade at $37,750/800 a tonne, just off a new high of $38,300 and up from Monday's $37,300. "Nobody would go short in nickel ... there is some genuine market tightness," analyst Michael Widmer at Calyon said. Prices were supported by pay talks at Xstrata's nickel operations in Sudbury, Ontario.
"Sudbury will continue to support prices, unless they reach an agreement, prices could spike to $40,000," Widmer said.
If a new collective agreement is not reached by the time the current contract expires at midnight on January 31, more than 1,000 employees at the Sudbury complex, with just over 4 percent of world nickel smelting capacity, would be in position to strike.
Available stocks of nickel stand at around 3,700 tonnes, about one day's global consumption and down from around 36,000 tonnes at the start of 2006. In the same period, prices have jumped more than 170 percent. Nickel's cash premium swelled to $3,900 during the day, more than doubling in the past week, reflecting tight supplies.
Tin traded at a record high of $12,225 and closed just below that at $12,100/200, up 2.6 percent. The market was buoyed by uncertainty about the operation of the independent smelters in Indonesia that faced closure in October. The country accounts for a third of world tin output and the provincial government has identified eight smelters, out of 35 small smelters, that may be allowed to re-open.
Aluminium closed at $2,815, up $55. It earlier hit its strongest since late 2006.
A violent general strike in Guinea has halted shipments of bauxite, the raw material needed to produce aluminium, by the world's top exporter Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG), underpinning the market.
The premium for LME cash aluminium above the three-month price, or backwardation, was at $114, its highest since 1997. Copper futures gained $40 to end at $5,660, having risen as much as 2.5 percent during the afternoon.
"We saw some sympathetic buying and covering in copper, but most of the interest seems to have come out of COMEX, which seems to be leading London," said UBS metals analyst Robin Bhar.
At the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, copper for March delivery rose 5.00 cents by the close to $2.5795 a lb, after dealing between $2.5165 and $2.6150, its highest level since January 16. Zinc edged up to $3,705 from $3,690, while lead gained $25 to $1,673.
Comments
Comments are closed.