SMM Daily Review - 2011/9/22 Nickel Market

SHANGHAI, Sept. 23 (SMM) -- On Wednesday, LME nickel prices opened at USD 21,100/mt and closed at USD 21,066/mt, up USD 60/mt from a day earlier, with the highest price at USD 21,445/mt and the lowest price at USD 20,905/mt. On Thursday, LME nickel prices slipped to hit a low of USD 19,400/mt after opening at USD 20,300/mt during the Asian trading hours, owing to panic sell-offs in base metal market following Federal Reserve economy warning and disappointing economic data from China. Finally, LME nickel prices closed 4.7% lower from a day earlier. LME nickel inventories were 97,818 mt, up 180 mt. 

In the Shanghai nickel spot market, Jinchuan Group cut ex-works nickel prices by RMB 4,000/mt to RMB 153,000/mt. Spot nickel prices fell sharply along with LME nickel price slump. Coupled with price cut from Jinchuan Group, spot nickel slipped further. Transactions were largely done in the morning trading hours, and were quite limited during the afternoon trading hours. Generally speaking, overall trading sentiment was extremely sluggish due to LME nickel price slump. During the morning trading hours, mainstream traded prices of nickel from Russia were in the RMB 152,000-152,500/mt range, and mainstream traded prices of nickel from Jinchuan Group were in the RMB 154,000-154,500/mt range. Few deals were made in the afternoon trading hours, with some Russian nickel traded at RMB 150,500/mt.