Rua Gold Inc. (TSXV: RUA, OTC: NZAUF, WKN: H8E)
An Emerging Gold Explorer with Two Highly Prospective Land Packages in New Zealand’s historical gold fields.
On July 4th local time, the London Metal Exchange (LME) announced that the average daily trading volumes for futures and options reached a 10-year high in the second quarter of 2024, with a 27% year-on-year increase. The average daily trading volumes in the second quarter reached 730,385 lots.
The exchange’s report did not specify the reason for the surge in trading volumes. However, in the second quarter of this year, speculative and fund buying drove the trading volume of industrial metal copper to a record high in May, with a 27% increase in volume.
More notably, the trading volume of battery metal nickel surged by 77% in the previous quarter, exceeding all other metals. The nickel trading had been stagnant since the London Metal Exchange suspended trading following a nickel price spike in March 2022, but it has shown signs of recovery this year.
Just last week, research institution BMI under Fitch Solutions stated that nickel prices are expected to steadily rise after 2024, reaching $21,500 by 2028, as the surplus battery metal market shrinks against rising demand. Analysts believe that the main reason for the price reversal in nickel lies in the supply. Indonesia, currently the world’s largest nickel producer, has seen a rapid increase in production in recent years due to extremely competitive production costs.
Additionally, the increasing global demand for electric vehicle batteries directly correlates to the demand for high-purity nickel. With the rapid development of the electric vehicle industry, nickel, as a key raw material for battery manufacturing, is expected to see continuous growth in demand.
After the sharp decline in nickel prices last year, there has been much discussion in the nickel market about when prices will bottom out. Investors can continue to monitor the exchange’s trading volume data to make more informed investment decisions.
