Nickel prices on both the London and Shanghai exchanges fell on Monday to near 11-month lows due to pressure from a strong U.S. dollar and concerns over economic growth in China.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.5 percent to $11,415 a tonne by 0143 GMT, after earlier hitting its lowest since mid-December at $11,360 a tonne.
* The dollar built on last week’s gains and rose towards a 16-month high on Monday as traders expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to keep tightening monetary policy.
* The stronger U.S. currency makes dollar-denominated metals more expensive for buyers paying in other currencies.
* Macroeconomic concerns such as U.S.-China trade tensions have been weighing on industrial metals. Nickel is used mainly in steelmaking.
* The most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped as much as 3 percent to 94,080 yuan ($13,537.27) a tonne, its lowest since December 27.
* London’s three-month copper futures edged up 0.2 to $6,066.5 a tonne, while aluminium rose 0.4 percent.
* China’s northern province of Hebei, China’s top steel producer, asked 10 major cities and Xiongan new district in the region to issue an orange smog alert, the local government said in a statement on Monday.
* Under an orange alert, the second-highest warning behind red in China’s four-tier system, steel mills must halve their output, while coal-fired power utilities must operate at “minimum” levels [nL4N1XN1FV ]
* The United States said on Friday it was postponing the enforcement of sanctions on Russia’s Rusal, the world’s second-top producer for nearly four weeks until Dec. 12 as their top shareholder works on a plan to cut his stakes. - Reuters -