For a variety of reasons including the war in the Ukraine the price of nickel futures escalated so much today that the London Metal Exchange we forced to suspend trading in nickel contracts, only the second time in history that this has occurred;

“LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) – The London Metal Exchange (LME) has been forced to suspend all trading in its nickel contract after prices went into chaotic overdrive. LME three-month nickel , the primary pricing reference for the global physical supply chain, hit $101,365 a tonne early on Tuesday, up from just $30,000 on Friday. The contract was suspended at $80,000 as the exchange stepped in to halt trading at 0815 GMT. All Tuesday’s trades up until then will be cancelled until further notice, the LME said.”

We and everybody else in the heat treat industry should be extremely concerned because of how this will affect the price of every single alloy component used in furnaces, fixtures, base trays, radiant tubes, mesh belts-all with feel the pain and it will be felt quickly. Just today a large commercial heat treater in the US told us that when they asked their long time basket supplier for a quote they were told that because of the volatility in pricing that they were unable to quote at the present time.

These graphs really demonstrate how quickly things have changed.

Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.

View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/