nickel up 5 percent

Nickel Gains in London as Russian Producer Considers Output Cut

By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Nickel rose the most in almost a month in London after Russia's third-largest producer said it may cut production because of this year's price slump.

Industrial Metallurgical Holding, based in Moscow, shut its two nickel plants for 10 days at the end of July for maintenance, spokesman Pavel Kovalenko said today. ``We can't exclude cutting production given the current market environment,'' he said.

Nickel for delivery in three months gained as much as $1,010 a metric ton, or 5.7 percent, to $18,810 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, the biggest one-day increase since June 12. The contract traded at $18,700 a ton as of 11:11 a.m. local time, paring this year's loss to 29 percent.

Among other LME-traded metals, copper gained $31 to $7,646 a ton and lead added $30 to $2,095 a ton. Aluminum rose $9 to $2,915 a ton and tin increased $50 to $20,525 a ton. Zinc added $6 to $1,770