something to read

MI ANALYSIS: China’s refined nickel imports superstrong
in Feb
Metals Insider - 23 March 2007
MI ANALYSIS: Chinese net imports of refined nickel and nickel alloy were 10,256t in February, the highest level recorded since December 2004. Outright imports were 12,087t last month, which is the highest monthly total we’ve seen since we started tracking this data series at the beginning of 2004.
Exports at 1,831t were below 2,000t for the first time since July of last year, although they were still strong from a longer-term perspective. Incidentally, the bulk of February’s exports—1,578t—went to South Korea, extending a trend that has been evident since the third quarter of 2006.
That may go a long way to explaining where the flow of nickel on to LME warrant in the country originates. China Refined Nickel Trade 2004-2007


Net Imports
Cumulative net imports over the first two months of this year were 17,155t, up 65.1% from 10,400t in the same two months of 2006.
The strength of China imports so far this year has been doubly surprising. Firstly, it has come at a time of record-high nickel prices and continued purchasing by Chinese consumers—notoriously some of the most price-sensitive in the world—suggests that existing stocks must have fallen to very low levels during the de-stocking cycle seen over most of last year and that the country’s stainless steel growth story is continuing.
20 Secondly, high imports of refined metal are coinciding with continued strong imports of direct
shipping ore, which is being used to supplement Chinese domestic supply in the form of low nickel pig iron.
Imports of ore and concentrates—with the bias very much towards the former—were 573,516t in February. That brings the cumulative inflow to 1.17 million tonnes in the first two months of this year, compared with 3.78 million tonnes over the whole of 2006. No surprise to see Indonesia, New Caledonia and the Philippines as the key origin countries, since all have significant direct
shipping ore production.

Chinese steel company plans new FeNi plant in the
Philippines
Metals Insider - 23 March 2007
China’s Rockcheck Steel Group, based in the north China port city of Tianjin, is planning to build
a ferronickel plant in the Philippines, according to local reports. Company chairman Zhang Xiangqing met Wednesday with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and laid out plans to invest $200m in a smelter in Eastern Samar.The plant would be located at the site of nickel ore producer Hinatuan Mining Corp with
construction scheduled to get underway in the third quarter of this year.
Rockcheck Steel Group is one of China's top 500 corporations and has a combined steel production of 3.5 million tonnes per year with annual sales last year reaching more than 22 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion).