Nickel leaps to five-week high as Indonesia cracks down on trader
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Nickel jumped to its highest in more than five weeks on Thursday after top producer Indonesia said it would clamp down on companies linked to a major ore trader, adding to concerns over tightening supply.
Benchmark three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange was up 3% to $16,255 a metric ton in official open outcry activity, having earlier touched $16,360, the most since September 28.
On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most traded nickel contract ended daytime trading up 5.3% at a two-week high of 122,550 yuan ($18,375) a ton after its biggest daily gain since January.
Indonesia's forestry task force said it would take action against companies owned by or affiliated with businessman Arif Kurniawan for operating illegally in forest areas after identifying possible irregularities in mining governance, licensing and permitting processes.
Local media reports said Kurniawan was a former Glencore trader who controlled a large share of Indonesia's nickel ore trade.
Nickel producers in the country have already faced rising costs and tighter mining quotas this year, prompting coordinated output cuts.
"For the year as a whole, we are expecting a fall of 6% or so in total exports of nickel and products, more than we had predicted at the start of the year," Macquarie analysts said in a note on Indonesia, adding that the market was now focusing on ore quotas for 2027.
Elsewhere, copper edged up 0.1% to $14,025 as industrial metals were buoyed by a weaker dollar — making greenback-denominated commodities cheaper for investors using other currencies — but fears that the Democrats' US midterm victory could restrain the AI buildout capped gains.
In top metals consumer China, the Yangshan premium
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