LME nickel jumps another 10% after record rally on supply fears

London nickel prices jumped more than 10% on Tuesday, adding nearly 87% of their value in the past two days, as increasing sanctions against Russia fuelled supply fears amid declining inventories of the stainless steel-making raw material.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange climbed 10.3% to $53,005 a tonne by 0305 GMT. Prices shot up by a record 90.2% to an all-time high of $55,000 in intraday trade on Monday, before closing more than 66.3% higher.

The most-traded April nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange hit a record high of 228,810 yuan ($36,255.74) a tonne in early trade.

Russia supplies the world with around 10% of its nickel needs mainly for stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries.

Inventories of nickel in LME-registered warehouses are at their lowest since 2019 at 76,830 tonnes.