Premiums for Russian Nickel in Bonded Area Rise Rapidly

Nickel futures prices rose significantly last week and then fell to around 140,000 yuan/mt on February 26, and the spot transactions rebounded. Currently, the downstream industries of refined nickel have fully resumed work, and the orders from alloy casting enterprises are relatively stable as they had restocked before CNY and maintained production in holiday.

Russian nickel was trading at a discount of 300 yuan/mt against the Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange 1802 contract on Friday February 2 whereas Jinchuan nickel was flat, SMM learned.  

One nickel salt company in Guangxi will commission its newly-built production line in early 2018, Shanghai Metals Market learns.

Jinchuan Group raised nickel ex-works price by 500 yuan per tonne on Tuesday.

Jinchuan Group cut nickel ex-works price by 1,800 yuan per tonne on Friday.

Trading sentiment in China’s domestic nickel market was moderate, with SHFE nickel fluctuating.

Nickel Price Advances Following Production Cut News

The profitable import window for refined nickel was open for most of second month of September, a favorable factor for imports. 

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) announced to further raise transaction fees for intra-day close-out of positions in Ni 1801 contract from night trading on Sept. 22.

On Tuesday, Jinchuan nickel was offered at premiums of RMB 800/mt over Wuxi’s 1710 nickel, and Russian nickel at premiums of RMB 250-300/mt over the same contract.