LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Tin prices moved towards record highs on Thursday as a shortage of inventories in the London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouse system pushed up premiums for quickly deliverable material.
Industrial metals broadly were boosted by optimism that China, the biggest market, can avoid a damaging collapse of one of its biggest property developers, Evergrande.
Benchmark LME tin was up 0.2% at $35,050 a tonne in official trading after rising 3.1% on Wednesday.
The metal used in solder and lead-acid batteries is up more than 70% this year and last month touched an all-time high of $35,955.
Demand growth will outpace supply as the world ditches fossil fuels for electrification, said WisdomTree analyst Nitesh Shah. “The trend (for prices) has got to be higher,” he said.
EVERGRANDE: Chinese regulators have asked China Evergrande Group to avoid a near-term default on its dollar bonds, Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday.
MARKETS: Global equities markets rallied, brushing off concerns over the Federal Reserve’s plans to taper its stimulus.
DOLLAR: The U.S. dollar weakened, helping dollar-priced metals by making them cheaper for non-U.S. buyers.
INVENTORIES: On-warrant stocks of tin available in LME-registered warehouses have fallen to 675 tonnes from around 1,500 tonnes in July and more than 5,000 tonnes a year ago. MSNSTX-TOTA
SPREAD: Lower stocks have pushed the premium for cash tin over the three-month contract to $1,334 a tonne from around $400 at the start of September. CMSN0-3
SHFE STOCKS: Inventories in Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) warehouses have fallen to 1,278 tonnes from more than 8,500 tonnes in March. SSN-TOTAL-W
DEFICITS: The 380,000-tonne tin market will see a 10,200-tonne deficit this year and a 12,700-tonne deficit in 2022, the International Tin Association said in June.
NICKEL: A global nickel market deficit declined to 24,700 tonnes in July from 32,400 tonnes in June, data from the International Nickel Study Group (INSG) showed.
METALS PRICES: LME copper was down 0.4% at $9,250.50 a tonne, aluminium was up 0.5% at $2,950, zinc rose 1% to $3,055, nickel was flat at $19,225 and lead was up 0.7% at $2,127.50.