Nickel gluts to zinc deficits: LME shadow stocks tell the story

By Andy Home – Reuters

Nickel’s turbo-charged rally was snuffed out on Wednesday by a super-sized delivery of the battery metal on the London Metal Exchange (LME).

While LME registered nickel stocks had been flat-lining since September, off-warrant inventory had been steadily accumulating in LME warehouses in Singapore and the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung, which accounted for most of Wednesday’s stocks action.

LME registered stocks have long been a notoriously unreliable price signal, often reflecting warehousing rather than metal dynamics.