Nickel hits 9-month low on demand, lead up 3 pct

(Reuters) - Nickel fell to a nine-month low on Friday as weak demand from the stainless steel sector prompted investors to cut their positions, while lead was up almost 3 percent after a strike in Namibia prompted speculative buying.

The market stabilised after a sell-off earlier in the week triggered by risk reduction but analysts said prices were driven by fund interest during a stagnant holiday season rather than supply and demand fundamentals.


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Lead Tops Record, Extends Rally on Supply Disruptions; Nickel, Tin Rally

(Bloomberg) -- Lead rose to a record in London for
a sixth session on speculation that global production will fail
to meet demand after a U.S. smelter was damaged by an explosion.
Nickel rallied and tin climbed the most in more than two months.

Doe Run Resources Corp., the world's second-largest lead
refiner, said yesterday output at its Herculaneum smelter in
Missouri was cut in half by the blast. Prices for the metal,
used mostly in car batteries, jumped 94 percent this year and
have outpaced other industrial metals as supplies from Australia
were disrupted and demand improved.


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Lead Falls From Record in London as Gains Judged Overdone; Tin Rises

(Bloomberg) -- Lead fell in London after investors
judged that gains that took the metal to a record for a sixth
consecutive session were overdone. Nickel rose and tin climbed
the most in more than two months.

The gains in lead had been ``way too over-extended'' and
the metal was poised to fall, Robin Bhar, an analyst with UBS AG
in London, said today in a report. ``Despite these supply
concerns there is no actual shortage of metal in the physical
markets.''


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Copper May Fall in London on China Concern; Nickel Heads for Weekly Drop

(Bloomberg) -- Copper may fall in London on
speculation demand growth in China, the metal's largest user,
will slow after the nation bought more than it needed earlier
this year. Nickel headed for a third straight weekly drop.

Purchases of refined copper and alloy dropped to 121,383
metric tons last month, from 192,069 tons in April, according to
revised figures issued by the Beijing-based customs office
today. The drop, 5 percentage points more than preliminary data
reported on June 15, was the biggest since October.


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Nickel Drops as Stainless-Steel Makers May Cut Usage; Copper, Zinc Decline

(Bloomberg) -- Nickel declined in London for a
second consecutive day on speculation stainless-steel makers will
continue to cut usage after an earlier price rally. Copper and
zinc also fell.

Nickel's 19 percent gain this year has made prices
``overheated,'' analysts including Tobias Merath at Credit Suisse
Group in Zurich said. Such increases have reduced usage among
stainless-steel producers, which account for two-thirds of
consumption worldwide, Merath said today in a phone interview.


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Zimbabwe Bindura sees big drop in '06 nickel output

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Bindura Nickel posted a nine percent fall in processed nickel output in 2006 because of constrained production and equipment breakdowns at its two mines, a senior company official said on Monday.

Bindura, the country's largest nickel producer, also saw ore production declining to 1.52 million tonnes, from 1.65 million in 2005.


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Copper Declines in London as China Says Imports Fell; Nickel, Zinc Drop

(Bloomberg) -- Copper declined in London, snapping
two days of gains, as inventory and import data from China, the
largest user of the metal, indicated rising supply and slowing
demand growth. Nickel, zinc and other industrial metals dropped.

China's imports of copper and copper alloy fell 32 percent
in May from the previous month to 129,949 metric tons, the
Beijing-based customs office said today. That's the largest
decline since October 2005. Deliverable stockpiles monitored by
the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped 6.4 percent this week to a
three-year high, the exchange said.


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