Normalization in the nickel market after 1 year

After the London Metal Exchange (LME) suspended billions of dollars worth of deals and suspended nickel trading on March 8, 2022, nickel returned to normal trading hours at 1:00 a.m. a year later.

LME had planned to start nickel trading in Asian markets a week ago, but postponed nickel trading due to the risk of market fluctuations after it was understood that a small number of cargoes in the warehouse contained stones rather than nickel.

Nickel was the most affected by the fluctuation in the commodity market in 2022. With the strengthening of speculative transactions as well as supply problems, LME stopped trading on the nickel, which had increased by more than 100 percent and tested the $100,000 levels on March 8. Nickel trades reopened a week later, but were trading as of 8:00 am London time.

After this intervention by the LME, hard movements were seen in nickel throughout the year. With the sharp rises in nickel prices, companies producing electric vehicles began to seek solutions to reduce their costs.