LME hopes to resume nickel trade in Asian hours after March price spike

LME was forced to suspend the nickel market and cancel all trades on 8 March, after prices spiked more than 50% to hit a record above USD 100,000 per tonne within a few hours. And although nickel trading resumed on 16 March after daily price limits were introduced, it wasn’t available during Asian hours. Now it’s set to resume.

Who

The world’s largest and oldest forum for trading metals, the LME (London Metal Exchange), faced a significant crisis as the suspension left consumers and producers without key benchmark prices and damaged the reputation of the 145-year-old organization.

“We’re very, very determined in focusing on helping rebuild liquidity in our nickel contract,” Robin Martin, the exchange’s Head of Market Development, told the LME Singapore Forum. “We hope to be able to re-introduce trading of our nickel contract during Asian hours as soon as within the next two weeks.”

Why it matters

Global demand for nickel, used in batteries for electric vehicles, is expected to surge towards the end of the decade as the world adopts green energy and electric vehicles.

“We absolutely do not take our role in this industry for granted and realize that the LME has a lot of work to do to rebuild confidence in our market,” Martin said.

“This review is now close to being finalized and will be published next month,” Martin added.