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Gold/Mining/Energy : Donner Minerals (DML.V) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Supervalue who wrote (7542)	10/2/1998 5:57:00 PM
From: VAUGHN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11676

Hello Supervalue Article of interest: *********** US nickel market yawns at possible Russian delays Reuters Story - October 01, 1998 19:29 NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Concerns over delays of Russian shipments of nickel weren't enough to jolt the nickel market out of its slumber on the London Metal Exchange or the physical market, with U.S. traders lamenting the lack of nickel demand and the availability of supplies. Nickel leaves Russia on ships via its northern coast, but with less than half of the region's icebreakers operating and no funds to repair the rest, some U.S. traders suspect the remaining icebreakers may stop shipments by mid-November. You would never know it, however, by looking at the benchmark LME three-month price, which ended the late kerb at $4,070 a tonne, up $5 from Wednesday's final close, but hobbling close to an 11-year low of $4,000. Similarly, spot premiums in the U.S. have fallen to as low as low as 5 cents a lb, from a range of 7-10 cents over the summer. "Quite simply, there's no impact from the Russian situation, because there's plenty of nickel around," one New York merchant said. "There's been plenty of Russian material that's been flowing this way all year." And from the demand side, producers of stainless steel, which account for two-thirds of nickel demand, bought less nickel in September than they did in the summer months, the merchant said. "They were hoping for an improvement from when the summer ended, but it hasn't happened," he said. Another merchant noted that supplies could be affected "in a couple of weeks," if the Russian's can't work their problems out. Some traders expressed skepticism at premiums falling as low as 5 cents a lb. "You can't make any money at those levels," one said. "Premiums are still at 7-10 cents." The trader offering those low numbers said, "It's true we can't make any money at those numbers. But it costs us money to sit on the metal. We have to move it. The contango on the LME doesn't cover the cost of storing the metal, so you have to move it for whatever you can get." Cuts in nickel production announced last month by the likes of Japan's Sumitomo, China's Jinchuan and France's Eramet haven't provided much support for the market. Inco Ltd announced it was shutting down some of its higher cost mine in Ontario, but was increasing production at its Indonesian operations. "The big producers like Inco and Falconbridge have to announce widespread cuts if there's going to be any impact on prices," one trader said. Let us know what "all over " means? Regards