(Repeats Sept. 19 column with no changes)
* Shanghai nickel price, volume and open interest: https://tmsnrt.rs/31zmWLb
* LME price stocks and spreads: https://tmsnrt.rs/31DqI6c
By Andy Home
LONDON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - There's only so much bullish
news even the red-hot nickel market can absorb.
London nickel CMNI3 leapt to a five-year high of $18,850
per tonne this month as Indonesia confirmed it would bring
forward to next year a ban on exporting nickel ore. That will cut off the major source of feed for China's
nickel pig iron (NPI) producers.
This week's news that the Philippines will suspend
indefinitely operations in the nickel mining hub of Tawi-Tawi
province threatens supply from China's second largest ore
supplier. But rather than extending its super-charged rally, nickel
has retreated from the highs in both London and Shanghai, a
telling sign of bull exhaustion.
This particular chapter in the nickel story, nevertheless,
is far from over, the original Shanghai surge morphing into a
London squeeze.
SHANGHAI SURGE ABATES
Shanghai has led London on the move higher, particularly
during the ferocious rallies of Aug. 8 and 30, when much of the
price action played out in the early hours of the London
morning.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) nickel contract
SNIcv1 saw both volumes and market open interest soar on the
moves higher as speculators stampeded into the market.
That surge seems to be abating. Volumes remain elevated but
market open interest has collapsed by almost 30% since the start
of September, implying a wave of profit-taking.
London too seems to have run out of upside momentum, with
nickel sliding to $17,300.
Speculative long positioning on the LME nickel contract
peaked last week at about 46% of open interest, the largest
collective bull bet since September 2017, according to LME
broker Marex Spectron. This had eased to 39% on Tuesday.
The fact that the price has fallen despite the latest threat
to the supply chain suggests a market that had moved too
aggressively ahead of fundamentals.
LONDON SQUEEZE
The nickel action is far from finished in London, however.
Focus has shifted from the outright price to time-spreads as
the front part of the LME curve experiences its most acute
tightness in a decade.
The benchmark cash-to-three-months time-spread CMNI0-3
flexed out to a backwardation of $163 per tonne last week.
At Wednesday's close cash metal was still commanding a
significant $105 premium over the three-month price.
Such severe tightness is "something of an oddity", according
to analysts at Citi ("Metals Weekly", Sept. 3, 2019).
The Indonesian ore ban doesn't start until January, which
allows exporters to maximise shipments over the remainder of the
year.
Moreover, China's NPI producers are holding "ample stocks"
of ore, providing some cushion against the supply-chain
disruption expected next year.
Supply "deficits in our numbers don't get massive until
after 2021," according to Citi, which says the current squeeze
is down to "the massive technical and trend buying congregating
in the nearby monthly contracts" and distorting the curve.
The bank also says the spreads blow-out could spur a
reversal in the LME stocks downtrend as shorts are incentivised
to deliver metal to the exchange.
TESTING AVAILABILITY
Such deliveries are already taking place. After falling
steadily over the last two years, LME inventory has staged a
minor rebuild.
A total 41,910 tonnes have entered the LME warehouse system
since the beginning of August, when the front month of the LME
curve first started tightening.
Prior to August the cumulative inflow in the first seven
months of the year was just 46,800 tonnes.
Some of the impact has been mitigated by an acceleration in
cancellations with the amount of metal earmarked for physical
load-out surging by a net 22,500 tonnes last week and the ratio
of cancelled tonnage jumping to 44%.
This is a key reason why the spreads remain as tight as they
are with the market structure still incentivising more metal
into the system.
It will be an interesting test of physical market
availability since there is an analysts' consensus that part of
the previous strong drawdown in LME stocks was down to
off-market stockbuilding.
It's clear that some of this shadow stock has already
re-appeared. The only question is how much more is "out there".
Citi's tentative answer is around 350,000 tonnes, which together
with visible exchange stocks, means around 600,000 tonnes of
total stocks, equivalent to 12 weeks' global usage.
REALITY CHECK
Stocks form one part of the multi-dimensional puzzle as to
how the global supply chain will deal with the loss of
Indonesian ore.
The Philippines is part of the answer but the country's
nickel production is itself a moving target given the rolling
suspensions of local miners for environmental checks.
So too is supply from alternative sources such as Papua New
Guinea, where the Ramu mine is facing its own environmental
pressures. However, the newsflow is not uniformly bullish.
Brazil's Vale, for example, has just received permission to
reactivate its 25,000-tonne per year Onca Puma ferronickel
operations. Then there is the problem of demand.
Nickel's future demand boost from electric vehicles may have
lit the bull fires in the market but for now nickel's fortunes
are still beholden to the stainless steel sector.
So far this year a super-strong Chinese market has offset
stainless steel weakness just about everywhere else.
But analysts at Argonaut point out that China's stainless
inventory has been rapidly building which is "not a positive
development for the nickel price outlook". ("Nickel: More Price
Consolidation Ahead", Sept. 19. 2019)
The combination of resilient Chinese demand for stainless
steel, the accumulation of supply threats and a speculative
surge has helped nickel escape the broader macroeconomic gloom
and comfortably outperform every other LME-traded base metal so
far this year.
A reality check may be overdue, particularly if Chinese
stainless production weakens in the weeks ahead and more metal
is drawn into the exchange light by the current LME
backwardation.
Make no mistake, the Indonesian ore ban has upended the
supply landscape with just about every analyst revising upwards
their price forecasts over the coming years.
But no market moves in a straight line. Not even nickel.
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Shanghai nickel surge morphs into London squeeze https://tmsnrt.rs/31zmWLb
Shanghai nickel surge morphs to London nickel squeeze https://tmsnrt.rs/31DqI6c
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(Editing by Edmund Blair)