Nickel, copper and aluminum hit six-year lows on Wednesday after China allowed the yuan to weaken further, prompting fears that metals demand from the world’s top buyer would wither and sending nickel down 15 per cent before prices recovered.

London Metal Exchange nickel crashed to $9,100 a tonne overnight following a surge of chart based selling in an illiquid market, but recovered to trade at $10,515 a tonne in official midday rings.

Copper plunged to $5,062 but later traded up 0.1 per cent in rings at $5,118, while aluminum sank to $1,553.50 a tonne but recovered to trade down 0.4 per cent in rings at $1,581.50 a tonne.

China’s yuan hit a four-year low overnight, falling for a second day after authorities had devalued it in a move that sparked accusations Beijing was unfairly supporting its struggling exporters.

There were also fears that the central bank was under pressure to weaken the yuan further. Chinese factory output, retail sales and property investment numbers were all weaker than expected, bolstering the case for further easing.

For metals, the knee-jerk response to the devaluation was widespread selling on fears that a weaker yuan will make imports more expensive for Chinese buyers, but the complex later recovered as investors digested the news.

“There’s pluses and minuses. If it leads to a stronger Chinese economy because it boosts their exports, then what’s good for China’s economy is good for metals,” said William Adams, head of research at Fast Markets.

Also putting a floor under metals prices, the dollar fell versus a currency basket on doubts over whether the U.S Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month in the wake of China’s devaluation of the yuan.

A weaker dollar makes dollar-priced metals cheaper for non-U.S. investors.

“I think the metals space is oversold on speculative fears. But in the shorter term do you stand in front of this?” said analyst Daniel Morgan of UBS in Sydney.

“The first-degree impact is that if the price is more expensive, you will use less. And people are worried about what the devaluation says about China’s real economy.”

Traders said the yuan devaluation risks a shake out in Chinese copper financing, as importers who use bonded copper stocks as collateral for short-term dollar loans will face rising costs.

But in news that could support copper prices, Freeport-McMoRan has stopped exporting since last month from its copper mine in Indonesia, one of the world’s largest.

In other metals traded, zinc sank to its weakest since October 2011 at $1,730 before trading up 0.4 per cent in rings at $1,814, lead traded down 0.3 per cent in rings at $1,716 a tonne while tin traded down 1.1 per cent at $15,130.

• [Editor:Juan]