BENGALURU- Shanghai nickel prices jumped nearly 6 percent on Tuesday to a three-month high as trading resumed after a week-long holiday, with supply disruptions underpinning the market.
The most-traded November nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) was up 3.4 percent at 135,470 yuan ($19,304.32) a metric ton, after hitting its highest since July 9 at 138,800 yuan earlier in the session.
Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 1.2 percent to $17,830 per ton.
Brazilian miner Vale temporarily interrupted operations at its Onca Puma nickel plant in Para state after heavy winds damaged an electricity transmission network.
Madagascar’s nickel and cobalt miner Ambatovy has shut down a pipeline supplying ore from its mine in the country’s east to a processing and refinery plant due to damage, its major shareholder Sumitomo Corp said last week.
SHFE copper slipped 0.3 percent to 7,8540 yuan and LME copper edged down 0.1 percent to $9,918, with market players focusing on a press conference of China’s National Development and Reform Commission for further cues.
Before the holiday break, China announced its most aggressive stimulus measures since the COVID-19 pandemic to pull the economy out of its deflationary funk and back towards the government’s growth target. This move has given an overall boost to the industrial metals complex.