Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Nickel rebounded from the lowest in almost two weeks before a strike is scheduled to start Tuesday at BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Cerro Matoso mine in Colombia.

The metal, used to make stainless steel, climbed as much as 1.4 percent after settling Monday at the lowest since March 31. Miners will stop work at the world’s second-largest ferro-nickel producing site at 3 p.m. local time after last-minute talks over shift times broke down, said Domingo Hernandez, Sintracerromatoso labor union president.

The mine strike “might provide a near-term catalyst to address the slide in prices,” said Gavin Wendt, founding director and senior resource analyst at Mine Life Pty in Sydney. “It’s a trigger, but it’s likely to be only a short-term situation.”

Nickel for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange advanced 0.9 percent to $12,515 a metric ton at 1:42 p.m. in Hong Kong. The metal is down 17 percent this year.

Lead fell as much as 1.3 percent on Tuesday after its relative strength index closed above 70 for a third day on Monday. Zinc lost as much as 1.2 percent after spending two days higher than 70, the level that indicates to some investors that the contract has been overbought.

Copper in London slid 0.1 percent to $5,985 a ton ($2.71 a pound). In New York, May futures lost 0.1 percent to $2.717 a pound, while the metal in Shanghai for June dropped 0.9 percent to 43,280 yuan ($6,965) a ton.

On the LME, aluminum and tin were little changed.