Mar 14, 2022
LME nickel trading to resume 16 March
2022-07-05
The London Metal Exchange (LME) plans to resume nickel trading on 16 March, just over a week after suspending activity, and will extend price limits to other base metals.
The LME will restart nickel trading at 8:00 GMT on 16 March with regular hours scheduled to begin on 17 March. This follows nearly a week of inactivity following a spike in prices to over $100,000/t on 8 March. The last official LME nickel settlement was recorded on 7 March at $42,150/t for the three-month contract.
The exchange will also put in place a 5pc daily price fluctuation limit on nickel contracts based on the previous day's closing price, which is tighter than the 10pc band proposed previously by the exchange.
All other base metals will also now have a 15pc up or down daily limit as well, a move not previously outlined in the guidelines the LME laid out following the trading suspension.
All deliveries of nickel contracts will be deferred to 23 March, including any contract previously stating a 16-22 March delivery.
The LME also lowered its accountability levels for reporting relevant information about trades to 3,000 lots from 6,000 lots previously.
The exchange said it also plans to consider additional rules and guidelines after comments regarding low stockpiles, which "could be capable of exacerbating situations such as the present one."
LME nickel stockpiles have declined by 71pc to 75,318t on 14 March from a year earlier.
By Zach Schumacher
Source: Argus
