SHANGHAI, Jul 25 (SMM) – Shanghai nickel prices may cling to a-year high in the short term as long positions continued to dominate the SHFE nickel contracts, after prices pared strong gains from the previous two weeks on eased purchasing spree in the week to Thursday July 25.
Spot purchases could also underpin prices as a domestic steel mill procured large quantities of nickel pig iron (NPI) and refined nickel at high prices last week. It stockpiled NPI that could meet production till September.
In the morning trading hours of Thursday July 25, the most-liquid SHFE nickel October contract trimmed some overnight gains and hovered between 113,000-112,500 yuan/mt, after loaded-up longs drove it up 1.63% to end at 113,770 yuan/mt last night.
The most-liquid SHFE nickel contract fell for the third consecutive trading day by 0.72% on Wednesday July 24. This followed after eight straight days of increases from July 10, with a high of 119,240 yuan/mt on July 19, up some 21.4% from July 5 when prices showed signs of picking up.
