Independent Nickel Corp (INI)

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Nickel Falls Third Day in London, Weighed on by Demand Outlook

By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen

June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Nickel declined for a third day in London on expectations demand from stainless-steel makers will continue to slide, weighing on prices.

Nickel fell 4.9 percent in the past three days. Stainless- steel output in Europe will probably drop by about 19 percent this year, while global demand may sink as much as 40 percent, Michael Wright, president of the Bureau of International Recycling’s Stainless and Alloy Board, said on May 25.

“The non-China world of stainless steel is still fairly weak,” Societe Generale analyst David Wilson said today by phone. Governments’ efforts to revive the construction industry won’t help stainless makers as much as producers of the regular steel used in buildings and infrastructure, he said.

Nickel for three-month delivery fell $105, or 0.7 percent, to $14,100 a ton by 10:23 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange.

Commodities in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index fell the most in six weeks yesterday after dollar gains. Raw materials are sometimes used to hedge against weakness in the currency. Declines extended today in industrial metals, cocoa and sugar.

Copper pared earlier losses today after a daily LME stockpiles report showed a 1.1 percent decline, trimming the metal’s inventory to 303,200 tons, the lowest since Dec. 11. The contract fell $4, or 0.1 percent, to $4,916, after declining as much as 1 percent.

Tin’s lending fee for next day delivery jumped to as much as $20 a ton per day, the highest since April 28, indicating low availability, after a discount of $1.25 yesterday. Between 50 percent and 79 percent of deliverable tin in LME-monitored warehouses are held by one unnamed firm as of June 1, the exchange’s data show.

Tin lost $135 at $14,365 a ton. Stockpiles of the metal tracked by the LME jumped 4.9 percent to 15,490 tons, the highest since Aug. 28, 2007.

Among other LME metals, aluminum gained $8 to $1,492 a ton, lead dropped $5, or 0.3 percent, to $1,605 and zinc slipped $2 to $1,533 a ton.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in London at [e-mail]

Last Updated: June 4, 2009 05:43 EDT