Nickel rise3 Dec 2014 18:00
Nickel rose to the highest in more than a week after a court upheld a ban on exports of unprocessed ore from Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of the mined metal.
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the policy implemented in January to boost domestic refining was acceptable to ensure supplies to the country’s smelters. Nickel has risen 19 percent this year, the most among six main metals traded on the London Metal Exchange and third-biggest gain in the Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 raw materials.
“The ore-export ban will remain in place, and it’s no longer a matter of legality,” Mike Dragosits, a senior commodity strategist at TD Securities in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. “This just continues starving the exports of nickel ore out of the country, and it’s probably helping give a little bit of lift to nickel.”
Nickel for delivery in three months climbed 1.5 percent to $16,582 a metric ton at 4:57 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange, after touching $16,698, the highest since Nov. 24.
Citigroup Inc. last month forecast a global deficit of 62,400 tons in 2015, expanding to 103,600 tons in 2016.
Copper for delivery in three months fell 0.5 percent to $6,383 a ton ($2.90 a pound). Aluminum and lead also declined, while zinc and tin climbed in London.
In New York, copper futures for March delivery lost 0.9 percent to $2.8655 a pound on the Comex, heading for the sixth loss in seven sessions.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Deaux in New York at jdeaux@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Millie Munshi at mmunshi@bloomberg.net Joe Richter