BEIJING, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Shanghai nickel rose on Friday after a rollercoaster week, tracking an overnight jump in London
prices as investors took up new long positions. The metal, which is used to make stainless steel, opened 3 percent higher on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE),
reversing three straight sessions of declines before easing back. Open interest rose by 24,120 lots on Friday after long
positions among brokerages on the most traded May nickel contract fell by 4,177 lots on Thursday, according to ShFE data.
"Given the move lower was driven by long liquidation, it would certainly appear that some of this length has been
re-established," brokerage Marex Spectron said in a note. FUNDAMENTALS: * NICKEL: The May contract on the ShFE was up 2.1
percent at 104,540 yuan ($16,642.52) a tonne by the mid-session interval, on course for a weekly gain of 0.4 percent. * COPPER: The most-traded March copper contract was
down 0.1 percent at 53,110 yuan a tonne, but three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.1 percent at $7,127.50 a tonne at 0430 GMT, having ended flat on Thursday.
* LEAD: LME lead touched a fresh 6-1/2-year high of $2,681 a tonne on concerns over a harsh North American winter and an environmental crackdown in China, before easing back to
$2,666.50 a tonne. * DRC: Glencore on Thursday said copper output in 2018 should rise to nearly 1.5 million tonnes as its Katanga
mine in Democratic Republic of Congo ramps up to add roughly 150,000 tonnes, as well as 11,600 tonnes of cobalt. * MADAGASCAR: Japan's Sumitomo Corp said on
Thursday it has resumed production at the Ambatovy nickel-cobalt project in Madagascar from end-January after halting operations
earlier last month due to damages caused by cyclone. * BAUXITE: Guinean bauxite mining company La Guineenne des Mines shipped the first ore from its project in the western Boke
region on Thursday and will target exports of 2 to 4 million tonnes this year, its chief executive said.
