The aluminumwhich, like nickel, is produced in Russia, reversed his gains during the sessionbut trading in other base metals was modest in volume as investors stayed on the sidelines.
“A lot of people are locked into that margin, paring back, not wanting to tie up their metal as equity financing. They want to hold onto cash so they can weather this storm,” said Tom Mulqueen, head of metals trading at Amalgamated Metal Trading.
“More broadly, there are concerns about brokerage funding, higher margin requirements in commodities and all of this is a deterrent to risk appetite.”
Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange jumped its 15% daily cap in early trading to $37,325 a tonne and held at that level. So far this year, it has already accumulated a rise of almost 80%.
In operations in Asia, nickel on the Shanghai Futures Exchange also reached its upper limit, up 17% to 233,710 yuan ($36,666.14) a tonne.
LME nickel prices rose to record highs above $100,000 a tonne on March 8after China’s Tsingshan Holding Group bought large amounts to reduce its short positions in the metal.
Russia supplies about 10% of the world’s nickelwhat it is used to make stainless steel and batteries for electric vehicles, and also produces about 6% of global aluminum.
Among other metals, three-month aluminum in London fell 1.5% to $3,600 a tonne after rising 4.2% the previous day. Three-month copper fell 1.1 to $10,323 a tonne.
Meanwhile, zinc fell 1.8% to $4,025.50 a tonne, lead fell 3.2% to $2,343.50 a tonne and tin advanced 1.4% to $42,660 a tonne.
Source: Ambito
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