The London Metal Exchange (LME) has suspended trading in nickel on Tuesday.

London nickel prices more than doubled on Tuesday to cross the $100,000-a-tonne level for the first time ever, as tensions in eastern Europe showed no signs of cooling, and growing sanctions against Russia fueled fears of a disruption in supply.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange soared 71 percent to $82,250 a tonne by 0755 GMT. Earlier in the session, the prices shot up nearly 111 percent, to a record $101,365.

"Fear of shortages is triggering panic buying," said Vijay L Bhambwani, head of research at Mumbai-based Equitymaster.

Russia supplies the world with about 10 percent of its nickel needs, mainly for use in stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries.

Russia is the world's third biggest producer of nickel, noted Benjamin Louvet, analyst at OFI Asset Management. "The impact of such sanctions could be significant, as 37 percent of Russian exports go to the Netherlands and 16 percent to Germany," he said.

"As sanctions against the Russians got rolled out last week with unprecedented speed, investors found themselves stripping away all Russian output from their supply and demand projections and marking up prices accordingly," ED&F Man Capital Markets analyst Edward Meir said in a note.

Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow to isolate it from global commerce and are now considering a ban on Russian oil imports, news of which drove crude prices to a 14-year high on Monday.

Logistics disruptions have also roiled commodity markets.

Inventories of nickel in LME-registered warehouses stand at 76,830 tonnes, their lowest since 2019.

"I think the market will cool off... There's a lot of supply increase coming in 2022," said Steven Brown, an independent consultant based in Australia.

That would include a lot of new nickel matte production from Indonesia to drive prices lower near the end of 2022, he added.

Prices of other industrial metals also jumped, with benchmark zinc and tin on the LME rising to record highs of $4,896 a tonne and $51,000 a tonne, respectively.

(With input from agencies)