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View all search resultsShanghai nickel breakout signals new metals trading landscape
Shanghai Futures Exchange is looking to extend reach across the Asian region, capitalizing on the Chinese nickel ecosystem that links mines in Indonesia with refineries on the Chinese mainland.
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A worker in protective gear uses a tool to scoop molten metal on Sept. 16, 2025, at Harita Nickel’s smelting facility on Obi Island in South Halmahera, North Maluku. (AFP/Daeng Mansur)
The world of metals trading is changing, and so too is the way metals are traded.
Politics and war have broken what were once highly globalized supply chains into more regionally diverse parts.
The metals world is drifting away from a single global benchmark set by the 149-year-old London Metal Exchange (LME), now owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing.
Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) opening its nickel contract to overseas firms in April is a sign of this changing reality.
Shanghai is already the dominant force in establishing benchmark metals prices in China's domestic market. Now ShFE is looking to extend that reach across the Asian region, capitalizing on the Chinese nickel ecosystem that links mines in Indonesia with refineries on the Chinese mainland.
This is not a winner takes all struggle between London and Shanghai or indeed, the CME Group in the United States. The proposed cross-listing of Shanghai's flat steel contract in London shows there are opportunities for all in this more fractured trading landscape.
ShFE has been toying with opening up trading to international players for several years as part of Beijing's drive to internationalize the renminbi. Nickel is an obvious choice for a trial run.
