RE: RE: Nickel pricesHere is another article for you John.
I really think the big boys are playing games with the LME
Vale Canada Nickel Miners Don’t Plan Strike End ‘Any Time Soon’
By Diana Kinch and Anna Stablum
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Vale SA workers are set to extend astrike at a nickel mine in Canada after a five-month walkoutthat took about 10 percent of world supplies off the market andpushed up prices.
Vale and United Steelworkers’ Union negotiators are at animpasse on issues that prompted workers to walk off the job inJuly, with no talks planned, Cory McPhee, a Vale spokesman inToronto, said today. Rick Bertrand, a USW vice president inSudbury, Ontario, said there’s no sign of a return to work “anytime soon.”
About 3,300 of almost 4,600 employees at Sudbury haltedwork on July 13 after talks broke down over a labor contract,paralyzing output and leading to the longest strike in Vale’s67-year history. Workers joined the strike in August at itsVoisey’s Bay mine, Labrador. Rio de Janeiro-based Vale is theworld’s second-biggest nickel producer.
Tight supplies of nickel because of the strike have boostedby 25 percent the premium paid for the metal in the U.S.Midwest, Maartje Collignon, an analyst at research group CRU inLondon, said in an e-mail today. The fee is added to the spotprice of London Metal Exchange traded nickel for immediatedelivery and reached 36.2 cents a pound in November, accordingto the CRU.
Nickel output at Sudbury, Vale’s biggest nickel mine,slumped 74 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier to5,000 metric tons, while Voisey’s Bay output shrank 88 percentto 3,000 tons, Vale said in its third-quarter production report.
“The strike has quite clearly tightened up the market inthe U.S.,” David Wilson, a Societe Generale SA analyst, saidDec. 4 by telephone from London. “There is quite a big tonnagethat has been removed from the market.”
To contact the reporter on this story:Diana Kinch in Rio de Janeiro atdkinch1@bloomberg.netAnna Stablum in London atastablum@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 7, 2009 16:01 EST