LONDON: Tin prices moved towards record highs on Thursday as a shortage of inventories in the London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouse system pushed up premiums for quickly deliverable material.

Industrial metals broadly were boosted by optimism that China, the biggest market, can avoid a damaging collapse of one of its biggest property developers, Evergrande.

Benchmark LME tin was up 2% at $35,680 a tonne at 1630 GMT after rising 3.1% on Wednesday.

The metal used in solder and lead-acid batteries is up more than 70% this year and last month touched an all-time high of $35,955.

Demand growth will outpace supply as the world ditches fossil fuels for electrification, said WisdomTree analyst Nitesh Shah. “The trend (for prices) has got to be higher,” he said.

EVERGRANDE: Chinese regulators have asked China Evergrande Group to avoid a near-term default on its dollar bonds, Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday.