Nickel trading will resume briefly in London before a new halt

Nickel trading resumed on Wednesday at the London Metals Exchange (LME) after a long suspension related to the war in Ukraine, but quickly stopped again due to a sharp decline.

Shortly after resuming at 08h00 GMT, the metal quickly exceeded the approved daily price fluctuation limit (set at 5%), falling to $43,995/ton, causing a new stop.

The exchange said in a statement: “After the resumption, the market reached the lower price range.” I explained that. “We stopped the electronic market to investigate possible problems with the price-limiting band and, of course, we will update the market,” he said.

Nickel, a metal used in stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries, hit a record high of $101,365 per ton on March 8 due to dangerous speculation by Chinese billionaires after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At the beginning of the year, it was worth just over $20,000.

However, LME decided to cancel all the work that was carried out that day and stop commercialization.

This leaves the nickel record at $48,002 per ton set on March 7.

Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine sparked market turmoil last week due to concerns about supplies from Russia, the third largest producer of nickel in the world.

Metal prices, which have already skyrocketed, have become even higher due to the bad decision of Chinese billionaire Xiang Guangda.

Guangda, the owner of the world's largest producer of nickel, Qingshan Holding Group (Tsingshan Holding Group), has been surprised by the war in Ukraine, although he has been betting on falling prices through short-term sales since the end of last year.

Then there was a “short squeeze”, that is, what is known as rising prices when short sellers start buying securities to reduce losses in the face of an unexpected surge.

-acc/zm