The Philippine ban on nickel spooks out LME

WAHINGTON (Scrap Monster): Since the ban on export in Indonesi9a, the Philippines have been playing its role regarding the fulfillment of nickel demand in China. The spread of latest news has created a tremendous wave in the nickel market. But relief was bought when the announcement came that the Philippine ban  on exports are many years away from now.

At London Metal Exchange, the benchmark price of nickel declined 1000 dollars to 18,925 dollars on Tuesday; a three month collapses, wiping clean all the profits gained by nickel in the previous days. The market is likely to be overly smug, by the recent lagging in the timeline before even the happening of the unsure Phillipine ore ban, if the whole market is expecting the events in the country to be same as that in Indonesia.

Most probably this is what recent steep offset in the nickel market is all about. Or maybe this can be the reaction of the market towards all the bullish rumors.

Since the market changing ban of Indonesia over unprocessed nickel, the market life of nickel has been going upside down and has been outrun by all other base metals in the market. By issuing the ban Indonesia has cut down about one third of global nickel supply. China and many other countries were in trouble as almost all the producers in the countries provided nickel for stainless steel plants, and their main source of raw material was Indonesia.