Jinchuan Cuts Nickel Price by RMB 7,000/mt After 5M Rise

BEIJING, Aug. 24 -- Jinchuan Group, Asia's leading nickel producer, cut its electrolytic nickel price on Thursday, ending the price rise for five months running since April this year.

    Jinchuan adjusted down the nickel price by RMB 7,000/mt to RMB 146,000/mt. In early August, it raised the price four times in a week, from RMB 131,000/mt to RMB 153,000/mt.

    An analyst noted that Jinchuan's price adjustment is within expectation as the market was unwilling to accept its ex-factory price since two days ago.

    Besides nickel, spot prices of other metals such as copper, aluminum, lead and zinc all kept falling in the past week.

    Analysts hold that with no positive news for credit fluidity and microeconomic data, the nonferrous metals prices are seeking for support from fundamentals. However, the consumption peak season, which arrived two weeks ago, failed to see trading buoyancy like than that in the early period of this year. The highly expected restocking hasn't come yet.

    Now metals importers are reluctant to sell out in consideration of their cost, but hold wait-and-see attitude before new output and import data come out, Jiang said.

    China's imports of copper and copper products reached 406,600 tons in July, down 15 percent from June. Insiders predict that the August import data will give direction to the price of nonferrous metals.

    (Source: chinamining.org)