Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange rebounded during morning trading on Thursday October 28, with nickel and copper leading the pack higher.
The three-month nickel price was recently at $19,735 per tonne, up by 1.7% from $19,412 per tonne at Wednesday's 5pm close.
"Copper and nickel rebounded on Thursday as bargain hunters were attracted to the metals with possibly the tightest fundamentals," Anna Stablum, LME Desk analyst at Marex, said this morning.
"In contrast, aluminium and tin continued to see hefty selling, alongside a drop in thermal and coking coal after China's National Development and Reform Commission said they were mulling price limits as well as calling on miners to raise production," she added.
Aluminium's three-month contract was up by just $4 per tonne at 9am, after 15,839 lots had already been traded.
Stocks for the light metal continued to fall on Thursday morning, with 3,175 tonnes removed from warehouses in Port Klang and a further 1,925 tonnes from Rotterdam.
As a result, LME aluminium stocks totaled 1,051,350 million tonnes on Thursday, the lowest since March 2020, with more than 400,000 tonnes already scheduled for delivery.
The three-month copper price was also up this morning, rising by 1.3% to $9,668 per tonne at 9am, from $9,548 per tonne at Wednesday's close.
LME copper stocks also declined overnight, providing support to the metal's price, but tightness in the market has eased with the cash/three-month spread now at $125 per tonne backwardation.
"The power curtailment in East China has weighed on sulfuric acid demand, a by-product from copper smelters, and prices have fallen," Stablum said.
"The copper tightness can easily come back with mining companies falling behind in production this year," she added.
Other highlightsTin was also up during morning trading after considerable decreases were seen earlier this week. The three-month tin price was up by 0.8% to $35,670 per tonne on Thursday morning, from $35,390 per tonne at Wednesday's close.