Last week, the ongoing unrest in the Middle East, Japan’s nuclear crisis, improving inflation in the euro zone as well as speculation that the US will shift to tighter monetary policies all supported the US dollar index to move around 76. Base metal prices fell due to speculation that China’s central bank will enact additional tightening monetary policies and raise interest rates as well as tight cash flows with Nickel fell by 3.36% last week.
In response to falling LME nickel prices, Jinchuan Group cut ex works nickel prices by CNY 5,000 per tonne to CNY 195,000 per tonne which then caused spot prices to move lower. Quiet downstream demand, coupled with traders’ cautious sentiment, left overall transactions quiet last week with deals largely made between traders. The price spread between Jinchuan and Russian nickel expanded to USD 2,000 per tonne as recent supplies of nickel from Russia were ample but prices for Jinchuan nickel were relatively firm.
As of last Thursday, mainstream traded prices for Jinchuan nickel were around CNY 194,000 per tonne while mainstream traded prices for Russian nickel were near CNY 192,000 per tonne. At present, Jinchuan’s ex works price is not supporting spot prices with spot prices moving lower than Jinchuan ex works prices.
