Shanghai nickel hits record high on low stocks, strong demand

Nickel prices jumped to a record high in Shanghai and surpassed a seven-year high in London on Friday, boosted by robust demand and dwindling inventories.

The most-traded October nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced as much as 4.1% to 155,140 yuan ($24,065.40) a tonne.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange hit $20,705 a tonne, its highest since May 2014, before easing to trade at $20,550 a tonne, still up 1.8% at 0350 GMT.

Nickel hits highest since 2014 as stockpiles dwindle

ShFE nickel inventories were last at 5,950 tonnes, hovering near a record low of 4,455 tonnes hit in August, while LME nickel stocks fell to their lowest since January 2020 at 181,368 tonnes.

Fundamentals

• LME aluminium hits its highest since August 2008 at $2,886.50 a tonne and ShFE aluminium increased as much as 2.8% to 22,870 yuan a tonne, a level unseen since March 2008, on supply worries in China and Guinea.

• LME copper increased 1.2% to $9,499 a tonne, LME tin advanced 1.1% to $33,665 a tonne, ShFE copper rose 1.7% to 69,980 yuan a tonne, and ShFE tin hit a record high of 256,960 yuan a tonne.

• China's major copper smelters lifted August refined cathode output by 2.7% from the prior month, encouraged by higher treatment charges and rising prices for byproduct sulphuric acid, state-backed research house Antaike said on Thursday.