Nickel:BloombergCopper, Nickel Snap Two-Day Decline in London as Stocks Rebound
By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen and Brett Foley
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Copper and nickel snapped two days of declines in London as global stock markets rebounded, raising expectations that industrial metals demand will keep growing.
Shares in Asia gained the most in more than three months and European stocks rose for the first time in six days. Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata Plc, the world's fourth-largest copper and nickel producer, said metal prices will stay above historical averages this year.
Growth in China and India ``is an ongoing event which will create sustained demand,'' Xstrata Chief Executive Officer Mick Davis said today in a telephone interview.
Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange gained $95, or 1.6 percent, to $5,985 a metric ton as of 11:57 a.m. The metal lost 4.5 percent last week.
Stockpiles of copper monitored by the LME fell 1,125 tons, or 0.5 percent, to 206,050 tons, the exchange said today in a daily report. Inventories have increased 13 percent this year.
Nickel advanced $700 to $40,000 a ton. It slipped 5.3 percent in March 2 through March 5.
Lead increased $55, or 3 percent, to $1,870 a ton after Xstrata said it's maintaining ``force majeure'' at a U.K. plant that may exacerbate a shortage of the metal used in car batteries. The declaration last month alerted customers that shipments from the Northfleet smelter may be curbed because of disruptions to ore supplies from the Mount Isa mine in Australia.
Lead demand beat production by 88,000 tons during 2006, according to the World Bureau of Metal Statistics. Prices of lead have jumped 55 percent in the past year. It traded at a record $1,975.14 on March 2.
Also on the LME, zinc gained $80 to $3,330 a ton, aluminum rose $34 to $2,712 and tin increased $300 to $13,400.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in London at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net ; Brett Foley in London bfoley8@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 6, 2007 07:15 EST