Nickel prices drop $800 per tonne in London

Base metals prices were lower on Wednesday.

Nickel prices fell in London, dropping $800 to $22,500 per tonne, a decline of 3.4 percent after the metal, used in the manufacture of stainless steel, was down by 3.3 percent on Tuesday.

A decline in London Metal Exchange stockpiles of 54 tonnes during the session did not offset worries about declines in demand.

July copper was down 2 cents in New York while three-month copper fell $95 to $8,095 per tonne in London as inventories in LME warehouses grew by 1,400 tonnes on the session and concerns continued about demand from China.

Lead was down $22 to $2,028 per tonne, bringing prices down more than 20 percent this year, while zinc dropped $31 to $2,120 per tonne, down over 10 percent on the year, as both metals have seen 40 percent gains in inventories so far this year.

Aluminium was $26 percent lower to $2,960 per tonne while tin dropped $600 to $23,600 per tonne.

Among precious metals, meanwhile, August gold was down $7.80 to $905 per troy ounce in New York while July silver fell 5 cents to $17.42 per troy ounce and July platinum plummeted $61.20 to $2,066.90 per troy ounce.