With nickel at $68 a pound, does this post belong in the Precious Metals forum?

MrEureka

Interesting story:

https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/chinese-tycoon-behind-nickel-short-faces-billions-in-losses-20220309-p5a2zd

MsMorrisine

Oh no

Billions in losses. Will anyone be brave enough to go after the money in court?

MsMorrisine

The exchange said trading could be closed for several days, giving market participants time to find cash to pay margin requirements. Nickel trades carried out on Tuesday before the suspension will be canceled. The LME said it would lay out further steps to ensure the market acts in an orderly way when it reopens.

MsMorrisine

The institution with the paper losses is a nickel producer. It is said that perhaps maybe they have also made a lot off what they sold their supply for.

(Don’t think so. Who could have predicted such swings up?)

JimTyler

Do nickels contain nickel ?

streeter

Mr E, nickel is a base metal not PM
Industrial use really slows down at about $25/lb
At $100,000/tn, that puts a kabash into the manu sector that is dependent on it.
There's always Canada and Finland.

MsMorrisine

At $68/pound the question was tongue in cheek

mr1931S

@JimTyler said:
Do nickels contain nickel ?

Yes. A US nickel is 25% nickel metal. 1.25 grams of nickel in each 5 cent piece. $18.15 in nickels=1 lb.of nickel metal.

jmlanzaf

@MsMorrisine said:
The institution with the paper losses is a nickel producer. It is said that perhaps maybe they have also made a lot off what they sold their supply for.

(Don’t think so. Who could have predicted such swings up?)

It wouldn't be unusual for a nickel producer to hedge

Overdate

A roll of nickels contains upwards of $3.50 worth of metal.
Nickels are the new hard money, until they change their metallic composition.

moursund

@Overdate said:
A roll of nickels contains upwards of $3.50 worth of metal.
Nickels are the new hard money, until they change their metallic composition.

.
It would be hard to use them as your hard money reserve, as each $10,000 would weigh just over one ton.

Overdate

With nickel at $68 a pound, does this post belong in the Precious Metals forum?

I think so. Nickel spot is upwards of $1.50 per troy ounce, which is more than the price of silver was in 1965 when our coinage was switched to clad.

jmlanzaf

@Overdate said:
With nickel at $68 a pound, does this post belong in the Precious Metals forum?

I think so. Nickel spot is upwards of $1.50 per troy ounce, which is more than the price of silver was in 1965 when our coinage was switched to clad.

Except $1.50 in 1965 dollars is more like $10 in 2022 dollars

BillJones

@moursund said:

@Overdate said:
A roll of nickels contains upwards of $3.50 worth of metal.
Nickels are the new hard money, until they change their metallic composition.

.
It would be hard to use them as your hard money reserve, as each $10,000 would weigh just over one ton.

Agreed. You would need a warehouse instead of a safe deposit box. Dealing in futures might be more cost effective.

streeter

Nickel is not at $68/lb. Trading right now at approx $17/lb. Well within tolerable range for manufacturing budgets. LME saw shorts covering which spiked shorts to $50. No company executed that trade for delivery.

MsMorrisine

The sky is falling?

No. Just a little chicken

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-tsingshan-agrees-standstill-agreement-lme-nickel-margins-with-banks-2022-03-14/

Namvet69

Shush, don't tell the mint, they'll increase prices again. Peace Roy