[Ni] 2008/11/19 Shanghai Nickel Market Summary

Shanghai, Nov. 19 (CBI China) -- Shanghai 1# nickel offered at RMB 86,000-94,000/mt, up RMB 500 from yesterday. Russian nickel plate offered at RMB 86,000-88,000/mt, traded at RMB 86,000-86,500/mt; due to prices in domestic nickel market is lower than overseas market, the flow of goods are not many, transactions are lighter than yesterday; Jinchuan Group's nickel offered at RMB 93,000-94,000/mt, good transaction as few supply; offers for arrive-in-future nickel at Shanghai Jinchu Materials Co., Ltd. were at RMB 91,800/mt; Falconbridge nickel traded at RMB 88,000/mt; Xinjiang nickel has no spot goods and will arrive at weekend.

    Traders in Shanghai said that most of recent transactions are goods transfer between traders; since downstream purchase has not been improved, they will remain stay on the side line.

    No major changes in LME nickel, thought it was significantly impacted by recent news, still fluctuating within USD 10,300-11,500/mt. Although some domestic steel mills announced resuming production at the beginning of this month, it is still possible for them to stop production, and certain steel mills had stopped production again. Affected by such negative news, some traders said they are uncertain about the outlook and will control purchases in order to reduce losses.

    It is said Jinchuan Group cut 1/3 of total production in November, and will continue to cut production in December. Decreased output led to tightened supply in the market; combined with some suppliers' reluctance to move goods, supply of Jinchuan nickel is not ample recently, sometimes even very tight.

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