Prices of Nickel Drop Sharply after LME Announces to Resume the Nickel Trading in Asian hours

SHANGHAI, Feb 27 (SMM) - At the beginning of last week, real estate financing obtained favourable policies from the subsided negative macro factors and pilot filing of private real estate investment funds issued by the Asset Management Association of China on February 20. The market was optimistic about the macro front.  The Chinese infrastructure and real estate markets have picked up, and the nonferrous metal market has been boosted. However, the shrinking demand caused sluggish nickel trading. On the evening of February 23, LME issued a notice saying that nickel trading in Asian hours will be resumed on March 20, which aroused an uproar in the market and led to a decrease in nickel prices. Previously, SHFE nickel prices moved rangebound with occasional ups supported by the macro factors, but the fundamentals failed to beef up the prices. Spot premiums also continued to decline as the delivery of SHFE 2303 nickel was approaching. As for NPI, spot stainless steel orders greatly picked up last week, but the overall market sentiment still weakened due to relatively low traded prices. On the demand side, according to SMM research, the #304 cold-rolled coil transactions were average, and the demand cannot be smoothly transmitted to the terminal sectors. Hot-rolled coil trading was acceptable. The market inventory fell thanks to the stainless steel mills' reduction in shipments. Futures prices generally rose last week, and the spot quotes grew somewhat. But the traded prices remained almost unchanged. Nickel prices have moved rangebound recently, and will fluctuate in the next few trading days.