The most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 0.4 percent to 45,910 yuan ($7,403.05) a tonne on Thursday. Shanghai nickel slid by nearly 3 percent as traders noted speculation that the ShFE will register global brands for delivery against its new nickel contract, soothing worries over domestic supply, and setting off profit-taking given a 14-percent price jump from the end of April to May 7.
"There is still no exact date of when the foreign brands can finish the registration in ShFE," said a source familiar with the matter. An expected shortfall in nickel ore supplies to China's stainless steel makers is seen underpinning Chinese nickel demand, after major producer Indonesia banned ore exports last year.
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co, Japan's biggest nickel smelter, expects nickel supplies to swing into a deficit of 5,000 tonnes in 2015, the first shortfall in five years, due to lower output of nickel pig iron (NPI) by China. Sumitomo Metal estimates China's NPI output will be cut by 22 percent to 357,000 tonnes this year.
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