LME nickel trading to resume March 16
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 15): The London Metal Exchange (LME) plans to resume nickel trading on 16 March, just over a week after suspending activity, and will extend price limits to other base metals.

The LME will restart nickel trading at 8:00 GMT on March 16 with regular hours scheduled to begin on March 17.

This is after nearly a week of inactivity following a spike in prices to over US$100,000/t on March 8.

The last official LME nickel settlement was recorded on March 7 at US$42,150/t for the three-month contract.

The exchange will also put in place a 5% daily price fluctuation limit on nickel contracts based on the previous day's closing price, which is tighter than the 10% band proposed previously by the exchange.

All other base metals will also now have a 15% up or down daily limit as well, a move not previously outlined in the guidelines the LME laid out following the trading suspension.

All deliveries of nickel contracts will be deferred to March 23, including any contract previously stating a March 16-22 delivery.

LME said it also plans to consider additional rules and guidelines after comments regarding low stockpiles, which "could be capable of exacerbating situations such as the present one."

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