Nickel prices touched their highest level in a week on Monday over concerns the typhoon season in the Philippines and a mine closure could lead to shortages. The island nation, a key supplier of nickel ore after an Indonesian ban, was hit about a week ago when Typhoon Hagupit destroyed nearly 16,500 houses and killed 11 people.
-- Tin prices supported by Indonesian policies
-- LME nickel inventories edge down, more declines expected
"We've said for a long time that there should be a shortage of nickel during the early part of next year due to the seasonality in the Philippines," said Nic Brown, head of commodities research at Natixis in London. "With that very unfortunate typhoon having hit the country the other week, we would expect that seasonality to kick in quite severely."
Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange climbed to a session high of $16,860 a tonne, the costliest since December 8, and rose 0.3 percent to $16,750 in official trading. Nickel, which rallied 2.6 percent on Friday, is up 21 percent this year after Indonesia banned exports of unprocessed ore. Brown said recent modest declines in LME nickel inventories, including a fall of 108 tonnes on Monday, was likely the start of more erosion in stocks after a succession of record highs.
Providing further support was news that Canada's First Quantum Minerals has shut its 38,000-tonnes-per-year Ravensthorpe nickel plant in Australia following an acid spill. Some other base metals were slightly firmer, supported by expectations China could move to shore up its economy. China's economic growth could slow in 2015, the central bank said. Hopes China will loosen monetary policy have put a floor under metals prices.
The persistent slide in oil prices and rally in the dollar, however, may weigh on the market, another analyst said. "Both of those will mean that the cost curves of a lot of these commodities will be flattening and falling ... It's just another headwind for prices," said analyst Daniel Morgan of UBS in Sydney.
LME copper added 0.2 percent to $6,500 a tonne in official rings, zinc added 0.2 percent to $2,195 and aluminium dipped 0.3 percent to $1,930. Tin and lead failed to trade in official open outcry activity. Tin was bid up 0.3 percent at $20,400 a tonne after warnings of less supply from major producer Indonesia and lead was bid down 1 percent at $1,976.
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