The most-traded nickel contract at Shanghai Futures Exchange traded in a range of RMB 128,850-133,400/tonne last week, closing at Yuan 131,680/tonne on Friday, up 0.32% week-on-week. Prices fell first before recovering.
At the start of the week, the Federal Reserve held its policy meeting and kept rates unchanged, but delivered hawkish signals that raised expectations of a rate hike at the next meeting in September. Macro headwinds weighed on sentiment, pushing nickel prices to a low of Yuan 128,850/tonne.
In the second half of the week, Indonesia's rare earth inspections continued to gain traction, with a growing number of vessels carrying nickel pig iron and MHP being forcibly checked. Concerns over tighter supply gradually shifted from expectations to actual disruptions. At the same time, month-end essential restocking demand was released, and concluded NPI transactions helped break the market stalemate, lifting nickel prices back to Yuan 131,680/tonne.
