SMM Morning Comment For Nickel Market On August 24

SHANGHAI, Aug 24 (SMM) –

SHFE 2309 nickel contract opened at 169,950 yuan/mt at the night session on August 23, and closed at 169,080 yuan/mt, down 260 yuan/mt. Trading volume dropped by 34,884 lots, and open interest decreased by 15,121 lots.

From a macro perspective, Indonesian nickel ore quota policy makes nickel price rise strongly. On Monday, the People’s Bank of China announced that the one-year LPR ushered in the second decline this year, down 10 basis points from the previous period to 3.45 %, providing positive macro sentiment supports for nickel prices’ upward fluctuation. In the fundamentals, yesterday’s spot market transactions remained depressed. The upstream was eager to ship to reduce the premium, but the downstream demand was weak due to accumulated inventory from last round of purchases and high SHFE price. Overall, nickel price is expected to be volatile.