SMM Daily Review - 2011/9/6 Nickel Market

SHANGHAI, Sept. 7 (SMM) -- On Monday, LME nickel prices opened at USD 21,500/mt and closed at USD 20,995/mt, down by USD 465/mt from a day earlier, with the highest price at USD 21,600/mt and the lowest price at USD 20,741/mt. On Tuesday, after opening at USD 20,800/mt, LME nickel prices initially slipped but later rebounded during the Asian trading hours, with prices hitting a low of USD 20,630/mt. During the afternoon trading hours, LME nickel prices were boosted to point to USD 21,000/mt due to significant decline of the US dollar.  LME nickel inventories were 101,610 mt, down 798 mt from a day earlier.

In the Shanghai nickel spot market, traded prices were mixed. During the morning trading hours, Jinchuan Group cut ex-works nickel prices by RMB 3,000/mt to RMB 160,000/mt, dragging down spot nickel prices o certain extent. Coupled with decline of LME nickel prices on Tuesday, spot nickel prices fell below USD 160,000/mt. During the morning trading hours, traded prices of nickel from Jinchuan Group were in the RMB 159,000-159,500/mt range, and traded prices of nickel from Russia were in the RMB 158,000-158,500/mt range.  Spot nickel prices slipped further during the afternoon trading hours. Traded prices of nickel from Jinchuan Group were around RMB 158,000/mt and mainstream traded prices of nickel from Russia were in the RMB 156,500-157,000/mt range. Overall transactions were quiet. Transactions were largely made among traders, while downstream consumers largely adopted a wait-and-see attitude.