青山控股：伦镍市场的逼空风暴

In March 2022, the nickel futures market at the London Metal Exchange (LME) experienced a massive short squeeze. Tsingshan Holding Group (hereinafter "Tsingshan"), China's leading stainless steel producer and a major short seller on the market, suffered substantial losses. At the time, Tsingshan held short positions of 200,000 tons in nickel futures contracts for the March delivery. However, the nickel matte it produced simply cannot meet the LME's delivery requirements. Additionally, "black swan" events such as Russia's Ukraine invasion made it more difficult for the company to source enough deliverable nickel to repay in kind. Due to a spike in nickel futures prices near the delivery date, Tsingshan recorded book losses of over ￥8 billion, and the nickel futures market descended into chaos. On March 9, the LME unexpectedly halted nickel trading and canceled trades from midnight on March 8, suspending the market entirely. All of this begs three questions: Why was Tsingshan subjected to a short squeeze? What risks are likely to occur in futures trading? How can companies fine-tune their futures trading strategies? This incident can serve as a stark warning to Chinese companies.