Updates prices
Feb 11 (Reuters) - Nickel rose for a fourth straight session on Wednesday after the world's biggest nickel mine in Indonesia received a sharply reduced output quota for this year.
Benchmark three-month nickel CMNI3 on the London Metal Exchange was up 2.7% at $17,955 per metric ton as of 1705 GMT. The metal used to make stainless steel and rechargeable batteries earlier jumped as much as 3% to $18,020, its highest since January 30.
French miner Eramet ERMT.PA on Wednesday said its PT Weda Bay Nickel venture with China's Tsingshan and Indonesia's PT Antam had received an initial production allowance of 12 million wet metric tons for 2026, down from 32 million wet tons for 2025. The venture will apply for an upward revision, it added.
After a prolonged period of depressed prices, nickel has gained around 22.8% over the past two months as Indonesia, the world's biggest nickel producer, vows to reduce supply.
"It's clear that Indonesia is realising its pricing power," said WisdomTree commodity strategist Nitesh Shah, noting that the roughly 60% of global nickel production the Southeast Asian country controls made it "more powerful than OPEC" is in oil.
"It has recognised that it doesn't need to overproduce to make decent revenue," Shah added.
Even so, the International Nickel Study Group has forecast a 261,000 ton surplus this year, and the LME Futures Banding Report 0#LME-FBR showed one entity has a short position on the February nickel contract accounting for 20%-29% of open interest.
Elsewhere, copper CMCU3 added 0.6% to $13,187.50 per ton, having touched a one-week high of $13,480 earlier in the session. That broke through resistance at $13,225, noted broker Marex, which said the market was working on the assumption that downstream buyers would step in if prices fall.
In a broad rally for base metals, aluminium CMAL3 gained 0.5% to $3,107, zinc CMZN3 added 0.4% to $3,406, lead CMPB3 climbed 1% to $1,994 and tin CMSN3 jumped 1.5% to $49,800.
(Reporting by Tom Daly; additional reporting by Lewis Jackson and Dylan Duan; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, Shreya Biswas and Shailesh Kuber)
((Tom.Daly@thomsonreuters.com))