LME nickel price hits 5-year high on Aug 15

The three-month futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged by US$280/ton to US$13,250/ton yesterday (August 15th). The highest in intraday sessions was US$16,385/tons, and the spot price also hiked significantly by US$307/ton to US$16,290/ton. The nickel price has risen for 4 consecutive trading days. 

Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel kept increasing on August 15th, reaching 144,792 tons. The cumulative decrease in August was 1,164 tons.

According to market participants, the notable and continuous increase in nickel prices was due to industries’ focus on the coming restriction on nickel ore exports issued by Indonesia. Both the development of the US-China trade war and Indonesian export policy on ore exports needed to be concerned tightly.