2014.09.0506:21:40UTC+00Nickel to record fifth week of gains on supply concerns from Southeast Asia

Nickel is set to post its fifth straight gaining week behind speculation of a supply disruption resulting from a possible ore export ban in the Philippines.

Futures for the metal with a delivery date in three months increased to a price per metric ton of $19,425 after gaining 0.2% as of late morning Tokyo time on the London Metal Exchange (LME). It closed at its highest value since July 9th yesterday when it reached $19,395 as part of 3.2% advance this week. Nickel has been the top performer among the LME’s six main metals this year due to its 40% climb in value that was brought on by the ore exports ban imposed by Indonesia in January.

The Philippine’s environment secretary, Ramon Paje, backed yesterday a bill that would boost the country’s domestic downstream metal industry by preventing the export of unprocessed mineral ore. Analyst Kazuhiko Saito from Tokyo’s Fujitomi Co. says that, “Nickel was the best performer this week following ore supply concern from the Philippines.”

Copper on the London market similarly gained to a price per ton of $6,946 after increasing by 0.2% to trim its second consecutive weekly decline. Futures for the metal in New York markets were mostly unchanged at $3.152 per pound while contracts for copper in November in Shanghai increased to $8,088 per ton to show a rise of 0.4%.

Other metals on the LME such as zinc, lead, and aluminum were mostly unchanged.