Commodities: Nickel, Oil Down

Sydney, July 28, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - Nickel had its biggest weekly decline in London in four months as stainless-steel mills, the biggest users of the metal, said demand is weakening.

The price fell by around 8% over the week and the closing level for three month metal of $US19,250 was the lowest in two years and means the price has more than halved after peaking at close to $US55,000 a tonne in May of last year.

Metal industry sources said that Jinchuan Group Co., Asia's biggest nickel producer, cut prices by 11%, effective Friday. Acerinox SA, the world's largest stainless-steel producer, and Finland's Outukumpu Oyj said that orders from the construction sector had slowed.

The London Metal Exchange three month nickel price fell as much as $US535, or 2.9% on Friday, to $US18,240 a tonne, the lowest intraday price since June 15, 2006. It finished at US19,250 for three months metal or $US19,005 a tonne for cash metal.

It took the week's fall to around 8% and means the metal has dropped by almost 30% so far in 2008.

That makes it the worst performer among the LME quoted metals.

LME-monitored copper stockpiles jumped 2,600 tonnes, or 2% to 133,475 tonnes on Friday, the highest since March. They have increased 9% this month.

In New York Comex September copper futures rose 2.8 USc to $US3.605 a pound on Friday. The metal price is up 1.5% in the past year.

Copper fell 2.2% on Thursday. Friday's rise was just 0.8%.

Oil prices dropped again Friday, ending more than $US5 over the week with crude for September delivery down $US2.23 to end at $US123.26 a barrel.

That was the lowest closing price since June 4. For the week, prices fell $US5.62.

Traders said that the price hit an intraday's low of $US122.50 a barrel.

Prices have slipped in recent days as reports have confirmed that US demand has dropped, largely due to high fuel prices.

A US Energy Department report released Wednesday showed that gasoline demand in the US last week had fallen 2.4% from the same period last year. World prices are off $US24 a barrel from a record trading high of $147.27 set on July 11.

Wheat had its biggest rise in a month.

Wheat futures rose 3% on Friday, offsetting some of the 8.4% drop in futures prices this year.

September wheat rose 23.25 USc, or 3%, to $US8.11 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The most-active contract rose nearly 1% last week, the first rise in the past four weeks.

While down in 2008 so far, the price is still up 28% in the past year, touching a record $US13.495 on February 27. That meant the price had more than doubled over the previous 12 months, so the slump since then has been substantial.

Chicago corn futures rose for a second straight day Friday.

Corn prices are down 21% so far this month as the price surge of June linked to the Midwest flooding has dissipated.

December corn futures rose 4.5c, or 0.8%, to $US5.965 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, after dropping on July 23 to $US5.6275, the lowest since April 1. The price still fell 5.1% over the week, which was the fourth weekly decline in a row.

Corn fell 13% from July 16 to July 23, the biggest five-day drop in almost 20 years. But futures prices are still up 82% over the last year.

Prices have fallen as US crop conditions have improved in the aftermath of the floods.

And New York sugar rose for a third day Friday.

October sugar futures 0.03 of a cent, or 0.2%, to 12.27 USc a pound in New York. The price is up around 13% so far this year.


 

AIR publishes a weekly magazine. Subscriptions are free at http://www.aireview.com.au