Nickel prolonged Wednesday’s slide, briefly falling below $10 before recovering to close at $10.0259/lb., down 39 2/3 cents. Zinc was off during the pre-dawn hours and never recovered much, ending at $0.8586/lb., down 2¼ cents. Aluminum was down for most of the day, but edged back to wind up essentially unchanged at $1.3794/lb., while lead sagged through the whole day, eventually shedding 3¼ cents, to $0.8051/lb.

Copper held up, on a mostly down day for the industrial metals, due to the labor unrest in Peru. A strike at Southern Copper’s Cuajone mine in Moquegua province has severely curtailed output, while the company’s Ilo smelter will have to close soon if supplies can’t get through roadblocks in the area. Strikes and protests have also broken out at other mines in Peru.

In addition, Norddeutsche Affinerie, Europe’s largest copper producer, said that China may have recently responded to high prices by selling part of its strategic copper stocks. That would account for diminished Chinese import demand for the metal in recent months.

Meanwhile, nickel oversupply grew in April to the widest in eight months as demand receded for the third month in a row, according to the International Nickel Study Group.

Supply exceeded demand by 13,700 metric tons in April, the INSG report said. Production increased 6.1%, year over year, while consumption was 112,800 tons, off 0.9% from March.

Zinc struggled as stockpiles of the metal jumped to a 21-month high. Inventories monitored by the LME rose 5.8% yesterday, to 152,175 tons, the highest level since September 20, 2006.

Zinc production outpaced demand by 64,000 tons in the first four months of this year, the World Bureau of Metal Statistics said.

Lower zinc prices have led to production cutbacks at smelters in China, according to researcher CBI China Co. The average operating capacity of the country’s 28 largest zinc smelters dropped from 83 to 78% in May year over year, CBI China said.

Source: Copper Rallies on Peru