break 60000, 70000, 80000, 90000, 100000 USD / ton
At noon on March 8, Beijing time, in less than an hour, the main contract of London Metal Exchange (LME) nickel (editor’s note: a metal used to produce stainless steel and lithium-ion batteries) hit a new high, and the increase of day once expanded to 110%. It is worth mentioning that the price of LME nickel just set a one-day rise record yesterday (the 7th), with a sharp rise of nearly 90%. It has reached 248% in two days. this rise shocked the market.
Faced with the madness of market funds, the London Metal Exchange had to suspend trading in the nickel market at 16 p.m. Beijing time on March 8. According to the latest news, the London Metal Exchange said that it would cancel all nickel transactions executed on the OTC and LME select screen trading system on or after 00:00 a.m. UK time on March 8, 2022, and postpone the delivery of all spot nickel contracts originally scheduled to be delivered on March 9, 2022.
At the same time, the news that Qingshan holding group (hereinafter referred to as “Qingshan holding”), a private enterprise in Zhejiang, China, has been forced to close its positions has also been fermenting. Some media reported that due to the fact that Russian nickel was kicked out of the exchange and could not be delivered, the 200000 tons of empty nickel order issued by Castle Peak holdings may not be delivered. According to market rumors, Glencore (Glen. L), one of the world’s largest nickel producers, forced Qingshan on LME nickel to take a 60% stake in Indonesia’s nickel mine.
On the afternoon of March 8 Beijing time, Glencore’s relevant personnel said in response to the request for comment of the daily economic news, “the above statement is totally nonsense.”
In addition, according to the first financial report, Qingshan industry Xiang Guangda responded to the reporter: “foreigners do have some actions and are actively coordinating. Today, I received a lot of calls, and relevant state departments and leaders support Qingshan very much.”
cancel the transaction! Delayed delivery
On March 7, 2022, the metal market experienced a “historical night”. Overnight, Lun nickel futures soared by more than 88%, reaching a record high of US $55000 / ton.
However, after entering the Asian trading session on March 8, the crazy price of LME nickel opened at 9:00 Beijing time. After a short-term correction, the nickel price continued to rise sharply. At about 14:00 p.m., the increase had once exceeded 100%, and the price reached more than US $101365 / ton.
In the intraday news on March 8, the London Metal Exchange (LME) suspended nickel trading at least for the rest of Tuesday. Before the suspension of trading, the nickel price of LME fell slightly, with an increase of 66.4% during the day to US $80000 / ton.
According to the latest news, the London Metal Exchange said that it would cancel all nickel transactions executed on the OTC and LME select screen trading system on or after 00:00 a.m. UK time on March 8, 2022, and postpone the delivery of all spot nickel contracts originally scheduled to be delivered on March 9, 2022.
closing position under the sharp rise response of both parties involved
According to the China Securities Journal, industry insiders said that even in the case of problems in Lun nickel inventory and supply, such a huge increase in a single day is difficult to explain from the perspective of supply and demand, behind or there are closing factors
Previously, some media reported that since Russian nickel was kicked out of the exchange and could not be delivered, the 200000 tons of empty nickel order opened by Castle Peak holdings may not be delivered. It is rumored that Glencore (Glen. L), one of the world’s largest nickel producers, forced Qingshan on LME nickel to take a 60% stake in Indonesia’s nickel mine. Qingshan holdings is the partner of Huayou nickel development project.
“It is rumored that an enterprise in southern China has made a large number of short hedges on Lun nickel. This situation reminds people of a capital sniper battle in 1995 – ‘Sumitomo copper’ incident. The market grab for nickel has reached a white hot level.” A person from a futures company in East China said.
According to the above media reports, it is unclear how much risk the rising nickel price will have on Castle Peak’s position. However, if the rally continues, the company’s short position may offset part of its production profit. Aoyama declined to comment in repeated requests for comment.
On the afternoon of March 8, Beijing time, the relevant personnel of Glencore, Switzerland, said in response to the request for comment of the daily economic news, “the above statement is totally nonsense.”
According to the first financial report, Xiang Guangda of Qingshan industry responded to the reporter: “foreigners do have some actions and are actively coordinating. Today, I received a lot of calls, and relevant state departments and leaders support Qingshan very much.” Qingshan industrial board chairman Xiang Guangda responded to reporters on the afternoon of March 8 that Qingshan is an excellent Chinese enterprise with no problems in position and operation.
Qingshan holding group, one of the world’s top 500 private enterprises:
stainless steel leading enterprise
If you don’t always pay attention to friends in the industry, you must be a little strange to the name of Qingshan holdings, but in fact, it is a “invisible giant” of a private enterprise with very strong strength. Qingshan holding group ranks fourth among private enterprises in Zhejiang Province with an operating income of 292.9 billion yuan.
According to the ranking list of the top 500 Chinese enterprises in 2021 released by the China Enterprise Federation and the China Entrepreneurs Association, Qingshan holding group ranks 80th among the top 500 Chinese enterprises in 2021. Among the 2021 Fortune Global 500 announced earlier, Castle Peak holdings rose 50 places to 279.
Public information shows that Qingshan holdings is a private enterprise specializing in stainless steel production, forming a whole industrial chain layout from nickel mining, ferronickel smelting to stainless steel smelting, stainless steel continuous casting billet production and stainless steel sector, rod and wire processing, and producing raw materials, intermediate products and new energy batteries in the field of new energy, It is mainly used in energy storage system, electric vehicle and other fields.
At present, the company’s stainless steel production base is located in Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other major coastal areas of China, while overseas is located in Indonesia, India, the United States and Zimbabwe, with eight major production bases.
The company’s main business includes stainless steel and new energy industry chain. According to the company’s disclosure, its nickel equivalent production will reach Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) tons in 2021, 850000 tons in 2022 and 1.1 million tons in 2023.
The ferronickel business of Qingshan holdings in China is mainly distributed through Fujian qingtuo group. At present, qingtuo group has formed an annual production capacity of 1.8 million tons of nickel alloy.
Foreign business is realized through Indonesia’s Qingshan Park (IMIP) and widabe Industrial Park (IWIP), with a total capacity of more than 3.5 million tons / year. Since it first invested in Indonesia in 2009 to develop laterite nickel ore in Indonesia, Qingshan Holdings has continuously expanded the global nickel ore layout, thus opening up the upstream and downstream industrial chain. This makes Qingshan holdings not only the world’s largest producer of stainless steel, but also the world’s first enterprise with nickel production capacity.
Qingshan industry started in the 1980s. In June 2003, Qingshan Industry Group Co., Ltd., the largest group company, was registered and established, headquartered in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. Since then, Shanghai Dingxin investment group, qingtuo group, Yongqing group, Yongqing technology and other companies have been established successively. At present, five group companies have been formed, under the jurisdiction of more than 300 subsidiaries.
As of September 2018, the registered capital of the company was 2.8 billion yuan. Dingxin investment held 23.70% of the equity of the company and was the largest shareholder of the company. Xiang Guangda and Qingshan management held 22.30% and 11.50% respectively, and Xiang Guangtong and other natural persons held 42.50% in total the actual controller of the company is Xiang Guangda, a natural person
the nickel business of Xiang Guangda, a mysterious tycoon of Zhejiang merchants
When it comes to Qingshan holdings, we have to mention the mysterious tycoon behind it – Xiang Guangda, a businessman from Zhejiang Province. Like Castle Peak holdings, Xiang Guangda is very low-key in daily life, and his value has not entered the top 300 of the rich list (according to the 2019 Forbes China 400 rich list, Xiang Guangda ranks 311 with a wealth value of 8.63 billion yuan). Not many people know his name outside Wenzhou, Zhejiang ProvinceP align = “center” Image Source: Orange persimmon interaction
Xiang Guangda, chairman of the board of directors of Qingshan holding group, and Zhang Jimin, another founder, are relatives and constitute the “soul figures” of the “Qingshan system”.
As early as 1992, “Zhejiang Fengye group”, founded by Xiang Guangda and Zhang Jimin was the first private enterprise producing steel in China. In May 1998, Zhang Jimin and others founded Zhejiang Qingshan Special Steel Co., Ltd. in Qingshan village, Yongzhong District, Wenzhou City. The name of the company is “Qingshan”. One is located in Qingshan village, and the other is also based on “insisting on Qingshan without relaxation”, which symbolizes tenacity and eternity.
With excellent production technology, Qingshan Holdings has gradually grown into the world’s largest stainless steel manufacturer. It is worth mentioning that the production of stainless steel requires a large amount of nickel metal at the same time. Xiang Guangda, with “sensitive sense of smell”, has calculated its forward-looking nickel layout. After the world financial crisis in 2008, industries around the world were depressed and industrial prices were depressed. Since then, Castle Peak Holdings has opened the global layout and incorporated the ferronickel production industry into the planning focus of the enterprise. For the first battle at sea, it chose to build a stainless steel base on Sulawesi island, Indonesia.
It is reported that Indonesia has the largest nickel reserves in the world. In 2018, Indonesia’s laterite nickel ore reserves accounted for 18.7% of the world’s total reserves. The annual nickel output of the mine won by Qingshan holdings is 300000 tons, almost half of China’s annual nickel output, accounting for 12% of the global annual nickel equivalent, and the production capacity ranks first among the global mining enterprises.
As an important component of stainless steel, nickel minerals exist in the form of nickel sulfide ore and nickel laterite. Although nickel laterite accounts for a large proportion, it was difficult to be developed and utilized until the emergence of ferronickel technology.
Smelting nickel pig iron with low-grade laterite nickel ore is the first in China. On the basis of this process, Qingshan holdings reduced the requirements for resource products, and also established the status of “the first brother of stainless steel”
However, the real demand for fire nickel is the explosion of power battery capacity under the new energy revolution. Here, it is necessary to popularize the downstream application of nickel resources. Nickel, the 28th element in the periodic table of elements, is often used in electroplating because of its good corrosion resistance.
Since 2008, the global layout of Qingshan iron and steel has included entering the ferronickel production industry into the planning focus of the enterprise. To this end, they increased investment in Indonesia, the main exporter of laterite nickel ore, to build a stainless steel plant. Since the construction of the stainless steel industrial park in 2013, Indonesia has become the world’s largest producer of stainless steel, with an output of more than 3 million tons. Since the construction of the stainless steel industrial park in 2020, Indonesia has become the world’s largest producer of stainless steel.
In addition, in March last year, Aoyama industry signed a high nickel matte supply agreement with Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.Ltd(603799) , Cngr Advanced Material Co.Ltd(300919) and . The three parties jointly agreed that castle peak industry will supply 60000 tons of high nickel matte to Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.Ltd(603799) and 40000 tons of high nickel matte to Cngr Advanced Material Co.Ltd(300919) within one year from October 2021. The company’s first high nickel matte production line in Indonesia was officially put into operation in December last year.
As one of the raw materials of nickel sulfate, the production of high matte nickel has limited growth in nickel supply, which mainly affects the structure of nickel. Insiders said that the breakthrough in ferronickel production of high matte nickel technology can use rkef production line to convert the excess ferronickel production capacity into high matte nickel, and then produce nickel sulfate to meet the demand of battery materials.
Overall, as a producer and processor of ferronickel and high matte nickel, Castle Peak industry has the demand to hedge the risk of nickel market, and the use of futures can play the function of risk management
