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

March 8 (Reuters) - 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.

FUNDAMENTALS

* LME copper rose 0.6% to $10,340 a tonne, aluminium was steady at $3,742, lead gained 2.3% to $2,503.5, zinc was 1.9% higher at $4,190 and tin rose 0.6% to $47,000.

* ShFE copper fell 2% to 72,860 yuan a tonne, aluminium dropped 4.4% to 22,790 yuan, zinc gained 2% to 26,855 yuan, lead slipped 1.4% to 15,455 yuan and tin fell 0.7% to 347,010 yuan.

* China's Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange Center has halted trading for nickel products from March 8 pending further notice, and raised trading limits for both stainless steel products and nickel since settlement on March 7.

* The London Metal Exchange (LME) is imposing a backwardation limit and delivery deferral mechanism for physically settled base metals contracts with immediate effect, it said on Monday, citing the Russia-Ukraine conflict and tightness in the market.

* Chile's copper export revenue was $3.836 billion in February, down 9.2% from a year earlier, the central bank said.

* Russian hydropower group EN+ is reviewing options for aluminium giant Rusal, in which it is majority shareholder, including turning its international business into a separate entity. read more

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MARKETS NEWS

* Oil prices gyrated and Asian shares fell on Tuesday as Ukraine peace talks made little headway and the prospect of a ban on oil imports from Russia triggered investor fears over inflation and slowing economic growth.

* The euro was pinned near a 22-month low on Tuesday as war in Ukraine has darkened Europe's economic outlook.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0700 Germany Industrial Output MM Jan

1000 EU GDP Revised QQ, YY Q4

1330 US International Trade Jan

($1 = 6.3110 yuan)

Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu

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