The only way the headline makes any sense is if this is a follow-up to an ongoing saga where it’s like, “hey so you know all that nickel that turned out to be stone? They had bought it all!”
> The LME didn't disclose the name of the company that believed itself to be the owner of nickel briquettes valued at $1.3 million at current prices. The firm was JPMorgan, according to the people, some of whom said the bank first bought the material several years ago.
$1.3 million. JPMorgan. Nothing to see here people, move along.
It’s still amusing that this happens to a big company and not just eBay buyers or whatnot. They buy a commodity and stuff it somewhere, then open it up much later to find its old newspaper and copies of ET for the Atari.
Apparently, it has been quite a profitable (and relatively expensive) metal to ship. Even most other metals like iron or steel are ~100x less expensive.
It's hard to tell from the article, but this could be another wrinkle in the Prateek Gupta and TMT metals fraud.
Ah. Yes, a possible connection to a $577 million fraud case would seem to cast doubt on this being "an isolated case and specific to one warehouse in Rotterdam".
Could this incident be a sign of a more widespread practice going under the radar, or does the fact that it was caught mean others would also have been caught?
The article mentioned that other metals owners and warehouses are going around double checking nickel in storage after this incident so if it is widespread we will find out shortly
Apparently (i don't know firsthand, but have friends in this game), this happens somewhat frequently. Physical commodity trading seems to be the wild wild west.
Not to mention this falls on Access World Group (as a subsidiary of Glencore PLC) with Glencore (a mineral multinational) having 2022 revenues greater than $250 billion US per annum.
It's a literal rounding error (albeit likely evidence of warehouse theft) in an industry where operating nickel mines have a fleet of 100 tonne haulpaks each of which has an ownership cost of > $1.3 million (truck + tyres + maintainance + 24/7 crew costs).
The issue isn’t JPMC it’s LME. LME has a strong reputation for quality of service. This calls into question that reputation, and the damage of that is far in excess the $1.3m.
Maybe you wonder what it is
Makes people good or bad
Why some guy, an ace without a doubt
Turns out to be a bastard
And the other way about
I'll tell you what I feel
It's just the nickel under the heel
Oh you can live like hearts and flowers
And everyday is a wonderland tour
Oh you can dream and scheme and happily put
And take, take and put
But first be sure
That nickel's under your foot
Go stand on someone's neck while you take him
Cut into somebody's throat as you put
For every dream and scheme, depending on whether
All through the storm
You've kept it warm
That nickel under your foot
And if you're sweet then you'll grow rotten
Your pretty heart covered over with soot
And if for once you're gay and devil-may-care-less
And oh so hot
I'll know you've got
That nickel under your foot
I especially enjoy the banner running right now "Live coverage". if the news cycle is slow enough, a bag of rocks can attract live coverage. Screenshot for posterity: https://pasteboard.co/hBp3IllYcVRr.png
That said, I happened too look up the price of some industrial metals a few hours ago and happened to notice nickel going for 23k/ton. So 154 tons would fetch you a nice house in most neighborhoods.
Its big news because folks like gold bugs have been sounding the alarm that there's a lot of fake metal circulating keeping metals artificially low (implying the West is far more broke than it seems)
Take it however you want, but the LME selling fake metal is a pretty big deal
In Canada, none. Sold off their gold reserves cuz we got more than enough in the ground (and speculating in the thing that everyone else speculates on is kinda dumb)
Not much, and a good argument against gold bugs is "why gold"?
The problem for the West is that we've put all our eggs in the dollar basket. Our prosperity presume that the people with natural resources and the people that build things will continue to accept dollars because they don't have anything better to settle accounts with.
I'm not saying a dollar collapse is imminent, but perhaps we should have a backup (euro doesn't count. Its a joke)
When I was interested in precious metals, there were conspiracy theories alleging that various repositories of gold bars don't actually hold the amount that they claim.
I wonder what those blogs and Web forums with the affiliate links for societal collapse supplies think about this nickel story.
I never put much stock in those stories but it doesn’t help that the USA won’t let any other countries audit their own gold holdings in our national gold storage facilities.
Yeah, some conspiracy theories state Fort Knox never held gold (or at least they don't now that the gold standard was done away), and is now used to hide the Roswell alien and other such items. Even movies have used it as a joke/plot device.
There was talk about this problem a few years ago, because lots of Chinese firms were using this stuff as collateral for loans. Apparently the fears were borne out in this case.
46 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 88.6 ms ] threadThey literally owned 54 tonnes of nickel that was actually just stone.
$1.3 million. JPMorgan. Nothing to see here people, move along.
It's hard to tell from the article, but this could be another wrinkle in the Prateek Gupta and TMT metals fraud.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/trafigur...
copper is cheaper than nickel and people bring in plate and hide weights in it all the time
https://www.wsj.com/articles/swiss-trader-trafigura-hit-by-s...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-man-trafigura-blames-for-a-...
Oh hey, Credit Suisse was involved. Imagine that.
It's a literal rounding error (albeit likely evidence of warehouse theft) in an industry where operating nickel mines have a fleet of 100 tonne haulpaks each of which has an ownership cost of > $1.3 million (truck + tyres + maintainance + 24/7 crew costs).
That said, I happened too look up the price of some industrial metals a few hours ago and happened to notice nickel going for 23k/ton. So 154 tons would fetch you a nice house in most neighborhoods.
Take it however you want, but the LME selling fake metal is a pretty big deal
The problem for the West is that we've put all our eggs in the dollar basket. Our prosperity presume that the people with natural resources and the people that build things will continue to accept dollars because they don't have anything better to settle accounts with.
I'm not saying a dollar collapse is imminent, but perhaps we should have a backup (euro doesn't count. Its a joke)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMQe5wVnlsM
I wonder what those blogs and Web forums with the affiliate links for societal collapse supplies think about this nickel story.
I suppose more people would believe that story, than would believe one that manages to include space aliens or Elvis.