BEIJING, March 20 (Reuters) – Shanghai nickel and tin prices fell about 2% on Wednesday, as concerns eased about supply from key producer Indonesia after a mining ministry official said the country was working to ramp up the approval process for issuing mining production quotas.

The most-traded May nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 declined 1.7% to 136,950 yuan ($19,023.21) per metric ton by 0216 GMT, while the most-traded April tin contract SCFcv1 was down 2.3% to 225,220 yuan per ton.

London prices fell on Tuesday after a senior mining ministry official in Indonesia said the country had issued mining production quotas of 152.62 million metric tons of nickel ore and 44,481.63 tons of tin so far this year, and was working to accelerate the approval process.

The delayed issuance had sparked fears of supply tightness, pushing up metals prices over the past months.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange CMNI3 rebounded 0.6% to $17,490 per ton, while LME tin CMSN3 was up 0.2% at $27,945 per ton.

Investors are now focussing on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting ending later in the day, which is expected to provide further clues about the pace at which it will likely lower interest rates this year.

LME copper CMCU3 added 0.2% to $8,990 per ton, aluminium CMAL3 ticked up 0.1% at $2,272, zinc CMZN was up 0.3% at $2,271 a ton, and lead CMPB3 rose 0.2% to $2,094.

SHFE copper SCFcv1 slid 0.8% to 72,690 yuan per ton, zinc SZNcv1 shed 0.3% to 21,220 yuan, aluminium SAFcv1 was little changed at 19,295 yuan, while lead SPBcv1 climbed 0.3% to 16,280 yuan.

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($1 = 7.1991 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Siyi Liu and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((Siyi.Liu@thomsonreuters.com;))

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