The FT says it was all about flowers
The 19% jump in nickel prices earlier this week caught markets completely off guard because it came after the tumble in Chinese exports.
What happened?
The Financial Times reports that a flower show in the Chinese industrial city of Tangshan might have been the reason.
Tangshan's local steel mills were ordered to throttle back on production from late April to October to keep skies clear for the 10 million visitors that are expected to attend an international horticultural exhibition. On the weekend, the city urged the mills to increase output ahead of the shutdown - and that, in turn, appears to have sparked a manic rush to order extra iron ore on Monday.
